Ethan Trex
Initials That Meant More Than They Realized
by Ethan Trex - August 12, 2010 - 8:28 AM

Earlier this summer, New York City’s Metropolitan Transit Authority announced that it would be rearranging some of its subway signs because they resembled a slightly naughty bit of internet slang. The signage for the F, M, and L lines read “FML,” which savvy web users know as self-deprecating shorthand for “F— My Life.” The double meaning of its signs caught the transit authority off guard, but they’ve worked quickly to switch around the letters.

New York’s subways are hardly the first victims of acronym problems, though. Let’s take a look at ten other organizations, places, and businesses that have realized a bit too late that their initials meant a little more than they had intended.

1. WTF

In 2009, the Wisconsin Tourism Federation’s biggest problem wasn’t finding a way to attract more people to the metropolitan Kenosha area; it was the realization that its initials mirrored the slang abbreviation for “What the F—?” The WTF from America’s Dairyland has been around since 1979, so it likely predates the vulgar WTF. In the end, though, you can’t fight an internet meme. The organization changed its name to the Tourism Federation of Wisconsin.

The WTF’s only consolation must be that it’s not alone. In 2008, the North Carolina DMV allowed drivers whose license plates contained “WTF” to swap out their tags free of charge. The DMV also had to change its website; the sample plate pictured on the site was “WTF-5505.”

2. DOA

In a move that must have been unsettling for thousands of Iowa’s seniors, the state changed the name of its Department of Elder Affairs to the Department on Aging, or DOA, in 2009. Something’s telling us that the change hasn’t helped Iowa’s elderly sleep any easier. The organization now goes by IDA, for Iowa Department on Aging.

3. AIDS

When Joan Woehrmann started her ambulance company in Whittier, CA, in 1955, she hit on a pretty brilliant acronym: AIDS. The letters stood for “attitude, integrity, dependability, and service,” which are all great qualities for an ambulance line. The name was also easy to remember in times of crisis.
She didn’t foresee the name eventually signifying one of the greatest medical catastrophes of the century, though. By 1985, the LA Times reported that Woehrmann’s drivers were being taunted and that the public mistakenly started to think that the line only transported AIDS patients.

Finally, she had enough and changed the line’s name to “AME,” even giving up the ambulances’ customized line of “AIDS 1” and “AIDS 2” license plates.

4. SUX

While FAA identifiers for airports aren’t technically acronyms, the three-letter codes can give rise to their own headaches. Just ask the Sioux City Gateway Airport, which the FAA saddled with the unfortunate designator “SUX.” Airport authorities petitioned for a new code, and the FAA – and this is not a joke – offered them “GAY” as a nod to the “Gateway” part of the airport’s name.

Sioux City decided that switching to GAY probably wouldn’t save them much sophomoric taunting, so officials decided to make the best of the SUX situation. Now the airport markets playful t-shirts emblazoned with slogans like “Fly SUX.”

SUX might not even be the worst airport code. According to a 2008 LA Times story, Fresno’s is FAT, and Perm, Russia’s is PEE. The big winner has to be Fukuoka, Japan, though. We’ll let you guess how that one gets abbreviated.

5. SLUT

In 2007, Seattle opened a new streetcar line connecting the South Lake Union neighborhood to the city’s downtown. While the project was officially called the South Lake Union Streetcar, local residents began ribbing it as the South Lake Union Trolley, or SLUT. Although the city and the line’s developers did what they could to dispel the notion that the line had a bawdy name, residents still refer to it as the SLUT; in 2007 the Seattle Post-Intelligencer even reported that a coffeehouse was selling t-shirts that read, “Ride the SLUT.”

6. CCRAP

In 2000, delegates of Canada’s United Alternative convention needed a name for their newly formed political party. They came up with Canadian Conservative Reform Alliance Party, which in addition to taking roughly six minutes to pronounce was abbreviated CCRAP. Organizers quickly realized the blunder and changed the party’s name to the Canadian Reform Conservative Alliance.

7. WPPSS

In 1998, the Washington Public Power Supply System chose to change its name to Energy Northwest to discourage people from pronouncing its unfortunate acronym as “Whoops!” The old name left the utility open to quite a bit of taunting in 1983, when the WPPSS defaulted on $2.25 billion worth of bonds. Whoops indeed.

8. POOF

In 1990, the Philharmonic Orchestra of Florida decided it had heard just about enough kidding about its acronym, POOF, which resembled an old offensive term for a homosexual man. The musicians changed their name to the Florida Philharmonic Orchestra.

9. The C-word

In 2002, Microsoft had to do a little rearranging on the fly. It quickly and quietly changed its ribald “Critical Update Notification Tool” to the more family friendly “Critical Updated Notification Utility.”

10. NIC

What’s wrong with NIC? In English, nothing. In Arabic, a whole heck of a lot. When the Coalition Provisional Authority began planning new Iraqi armed forces in 2003, they originally called them the New Iraqi Corps. They hit a big snag, though. As ABC News reported, in Arabic “nic” is “a colorful synonym for fornication.” The coalition quickly changed the name to the New Iraqi Army.

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Comments (177)

  1. I enjoyed this article…another one to add to the list is Sigma Tau Delta, or STD, a collegiate English honorary society.

    posted by Justin on 8-12-2010 at 12:59 am

  2. Not an acronym really, but I just moved to Pensacola and the airport code here is PNS. Not a fan — would rather fly SUX.

    posted by Cat on 8-12-2010 at 1:05 am

  3. I feel proud that the state in which I reside (Washington) has two items on this list. XD

    posted by rikki on 8-12-2010 at 1:08 am

  4. I drove past the Perryville Machine Shop in Perryville, MO…

    http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=31575859&l=5d6b43c2ff&id=1293750358

    posted by Jessi on 8-12-2010 at 1:14 am

  5. I grew up in Kenosha, we also have Bong Recreation Area. A picture of a sign near my childhood home made the rounds a few years ago. :D

    posted by Amanda on 8-12-2010 at 1:18 am

  6. When the light-rail line in Santa Clara County, California, was inaugurated, they named it Santa Clara Area Transit, so they could call it “SCAT,” thinking that denoted a quick getaway. But when it was pointed out that “scat” also refers to animal droppings the name was quickly changed, inspiring a classic headline in the San Jose Mercury News:
    Dung! Dung! Dung! Went the Trolley.

    posted by Tenderfoot on 8-12-2010 at 2:09 am

  7. When I was a kid there was a diet aid that my grandmother used. They were little caramels that were supposed to curb your appetite, and they were called AYDS, pronounced “Aids”. They were VERY popular, and I vaguely remember the tv commercials for them. That’s a product that went by the wayside in the 1980s as well…

    posted by shirleyfeeney on 8-12-2010 at 2:54 am

  8. Working for FedEx, they love the TLAs (three letter acronyms, get it? Ha!). So when PNS came around, I naturally refer to it as “penis” anytime management is around.

    posted by Daniel on 8-12-2010 at 3:10 am

  9. Not an acronym but still funny. A law firm my company deals with is Morrison Foester but you can reach them at mofo.com.

    posted by Irene on 8-12-2010 at 7:52 am

  10. In high school, I went on a trip to Kansas where we stayed at Friends University of Central Kansas. I’m sure the school never considered being known for it’s initials, but how do they stop the students from calling it F—?

    posted by Nancy Pierpont on 8-12-2010 at 7:59 am

  11. Ha! Was just getting ready to mention Friends University of Central Kansas in Wichita. I’ve heard rumors that way, way back in the beginning it was briefly known as that. Nowadays it is known simply as “Friends,” kinda like “Cher.”

    posted by Kristy on 8-12-2010 at 8:22 am

  12. WPPSS as whoops is kinda reaching here.

    posted by brian on 8-12-2010 at 8:29 am

  13. When the Sioux City airport applied for a designation change there was one radio station in the city that publicly opposed. They chose their call letters based on the airports – KSUX….it is a country music station of course :)

    posted by Zed on 8-12-2010 at 8:34 am

  14. @Amanda-

    I grew up west of Milwaukee and remember that sign well. For those of you wondering why someone would name a park the “Bong State Recreation Area”, it was named after Richard Bong, the highest scoring US ace from WWII. There are numerous landmarks in and around Wisconsin, including the airport in Superior, WI and the bridge that connects Superior and Duluth, that are named after Bong.

    As a sidenote, every time I see a reference to him I have a mental image of how tough it would be to grow up now (instead of the 30′s) with the name “Dick Bong.”

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Bong

    posted by John on 8-12-2010 at 8:52 am

  15. Thank you, Ethan, for correctly referring to most of these as “initials” and not “acronyms”. There’s a difference.

    Pedantically Yours,

    TBV

    posted by TBV on 8-12-2010 at 8:54 am

  16. There was also the Committee for the Re-Election of the President (Nixon), better known as CREEP.

    posted by Paul on 8-12-2010 at 9:02 am

  17. When I lived in Brooklyn, Brooklyn Union Gas (now Keyspan, I think) warned people not to make checks for payment out to “BUG.”

    posted by Amy on 8-12-2010 at 9:07 am

  18. Living in NC and having the sense of humor of a 12-year-old, there are still WTF plates around, and each time I see one it still brings out an envious chuckle.

    posted by Joel on 8-12-2010 at 9:09 am

  19. MTA is spending money changing signs based on an internet fad that will be forgotten in a year? That seems silly and definitely isn’t as bad as some of the others

    posted by Mike on 8-12-2010 at 9:23 am

  20. Not quite initials but a poor choice in abbreviation… years ago, when I lived in Milwaukee, Wisconsin Electric changed their name to WE-Energies. I don’t know anyone that doesn’t call them “weiner gees.”

    Now that I live in New York I have Consolidate Edison or Con-Ed. I read it as “coned” everytime I write them a check.

    @Amanda I love that Bong Recreation sign. Makes me laugh everytime I pass it on the freeway. I’d love to know the stats on how many people have been arrested there for smoking up.
    What is it with the power company?!

    posted by nancy pants on 8-12-2010 at 9:40 am

  21. The Boston Redevelopment Authority frequently refers to itself as the BRA. It is never not funny to me.

    posted by JRD on 8-12-2010 at 9:43 am

  22. Notice how many of these were gov’t. Which makes me think the Microsoft one was intentional by some programmer prankster. As a programmer myself, I can attest to our love of funny acronyms (though mine usually are PG).

    posted by Presidential Fitness on 8-12-2010 at 9:55 am

  23. My current favorite, especially when the commercials are on: Universal Technical Institute: http://www.uti.edu/

    posted by Jennie on 8-12-2010 at 10:16 am

  24. BFD, otherwise known as the Bisbee Fire Department, in Arizona.

    posted by AJ on 8-12-2010 at 10:16 am

  25. The local phone company in Manitoba, Canada is Manitoba Telecom Services – MTS. They also sponsor the arena in Winnipeg, the MTS Centre. Seems innocent enough, right? Not when French people come to town – STD’s are known as Maladies Sexuellment Transmissibles, or MTS for short. We always get a few laughs driving French visitors past the MTS Centre.

    posted by Bert on 8-12-2010 at 10:20 am

  26. It’s too bad the Wisconsin Tourism Federation didn’t change its name to a better meme – The Federation for Tourism of Wisconsin. FTW!

    posted by Deb on 8-12-2010 at 10:33 am

  27. Back before First Union was bought out by Wachovia, the First Union Center (now the Wells Fargo Center, where the Sixers and Flyers play) was referred to by fans as the F-U center. Some still call it that.

    posted by Jim on 8-12-2010 at 10:33 am

  28. For CMMI, or Capability Maturity Model Integration, I like to pronounce it like there’s a “u” between the C and M.

    And I lived in Pensacola for years and never gave the PNS designation for the airport a second thought. Until now. :-P

    posted by Mark on 8-12-2010 at 11:02 am

  29. “Not an acronym really, but I just moved to Pensacola and the airport code here is PNS. Not a fan — would rather fly SUX.”

    Hit up that SUX-PNS connecting flight.

    posted by Dr. Jones on 8-12-2010 at 11:24 am

  30. 4. Twitterers in the Sioux City area are encouraged by several local agencies to post weather-related tweets with the hashtag #suxweather. It usually does.

    posted by Adio on 8-12-2010 at 11:27 am

  31. @ Cat–imagine your itinerary if you’re flying from Iowa to Florida in those cities…

    posted by Wayne on 8-12-2010 at 11:33 am

  32. I like the fact that the committee to re-elect the president is CREEP.

    posted by Liz on 8-12-2010 at 11:34 am

  33. I was doing some legal research on rights of transgender employees in the workplace. As you may imagine, one of the big problems a transgender person faces is which restroom to use. Fortunately, there is a group out there dedicated to addressing the issue —

    People in Search of Safe Restrooms (PISSR)

    posted by Pete on 8-12-2010 at 11:37 am

  34. I’ve always thought CBS were unfortunate initials for a television network. Especially now that they use the slogan “Only CBS”.

    posted by Jeff on 8-12-2010 at 11:41 am

  35. A few years back, the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point did some major renovations on their student union building. When the building was completed, it was rededicated, and named after a former governer of Wisconsin…Lee Sherman Dreyfus. So, UWSP now has either an “LSD University Center” or a “DUC” (Dreyfus University Center), depending on how you abbreviate it. Needless to say, the university is not fond of people calling it by either name!

    posted by Lissa on 8-12-2010 at 11:42 am

  36. I’m from Fresno originally. Indeed, no matter if you’re skinny, svelte, pudgy, average, hefty, obese or tiny, if you fly into Fresno you enter FAT and you leave FAT.

    posted by Catherine on 8-12-2010 at 12:05 pm

  37. One of our area high schools is Redford Union High. Are you high? Another good one for the teenage humor. Even if you’re 40 like me.

    posted by Doug on 8-12-2010 at 12:30 pm

  38. The company I work for briefly wanted to rename one of the office positions “Administrative Support Specialist”. Fortunately, someone with a juvenile sense of humor pointed out the potential for embarassment.

    posted by Larry on 8-12-2010 at 12:33 pm

  39. Poor WTF changed their acronym after they landed on Your Logo Makes Me Barf. Like that one? How about Minnesota Library Foundation’s “MLF”?

    http://yourlogomakesmebarf.com/2009/08/18/your-mom-works-at-the-library/

    posted by Earl on 8-12-2010 at 12:38 pm

  40. These are some great ideas for t-shirts.

    posted by Bill on 8-12-2010 at 12:56 pm

  41. The Ubiquitous Tailors Society is a costume-making group, and the St. Louis branch takes full advantage of the resulting acronym. At conventions, they offer attendees with interesting costumes plastic leis…

    posted by mo on 8-12-2010 at 1:01 pm

  42. Here are a few more from the Beautiful Sunshine State:

    The Department of Education created the Florida Kindergarten Readiness Screening. They now appreviate it FLKRS.

    Out of Brevard County, we have the public transportation system known as Space Coast Area Transit. In a campaign that almost made it public, the advertising was Enjoy SCAT.

    posted by Will on 8-12-2010 at 1:01 pm

  43. @Jeff I never thought about CBS before and I have to admit that it took me a long time to figure out why. I got it though (yay me!)the new slogan does make it worse.

    posted by Brit on 8-12-2010 at 1:09 pm

  44. An incredibly mild example, but still…
    My company used to call their outposts “district offices”, which internally we always referred to as DOs. Then they decided to rename them “branch offices”. It took a few months before the memo went out adjusting the term to “branches”.

    posted by VM on 8-12-2010 at 1:42 pm

  45. I just thought of another one: my sister used to work for the After Incarceration Support System= AISS. Or as we pronounced it: AY-ASSSS

    posted by JRD on 8-12-2010 at 2:05 pm

  46. A few years ago, a city (NYC?) ran campaign on busses. It featured a girl on her knees reading and the slogan “read books, get brain”

    Not an acronym, but someone wasn’t thinking…

    posted by Caitlin on 8-12-2010 at 2:28 pm

  47. I took a picture of an airport contruction sign during my layover in LA. LAX Expectations indeed, I had to walk in the road to another terminal to get my luggage changed over to the international carrier.

    posted by Angela on 8-12-2010 at 2:36 pm

  48. We’re the Tourism Federation of Wisconsin.

    The only people we hate more than the Romans are the f-ing Wisconsin Tourism Federation!

    Splitters!

    posted by Wallis Lane on 8-12-2010 at 3:10 pm

  49. I used to work in a small department (two people) that provide statistics, reporting and analysis for the company. Our department name was changed every six months or so (not our responsibilities or anything else, just the name). When they came up with the name Sales and Marketing Services, I thought I could get that change pretty quickly by addressing everything as coming from S&M Services. No one ever caught that and that remained the departments for about four more years.

    posted by Barbara on 8-12-2010 at 3:45 pm

  50. When I was five or six my father worked for Boeing. They had a big worker insperation program dubbed “Make A Real Contribution” MARC! I had hats, pens, tshirts, notebooks, etc… with my name plastered all over them!!!

    posted by Marc on 8-12-2010 at 4:47 pm

  51. I work for the Williamstown Theatre Festival (another WTF). :) We admittedly enjoy our acronym and have a “WTF is going on!” publicity campaign.

    posted by Sarah on 8-12-2010 at 4:48 pm

  52. I grew up in Sioux City and we are proud of our call letters. It’s a kind of running joke whenever we host RAGBRAI or some other event like that. My favorite t-shirt is the “work SUX” one :)

    posted by Rachel on 8-12-2010 at 4:55 pm

  53. In the heart of downtown Toronto an unfortunate realty company called WTF Group is selling a rather large property. They filled every window with a very large WTF sign and it’s since become quite popular with bloggers. Links in my name!

    posted by Kat on 8-12-2010 at 5:20 pm

  54. Friends University was never known as Friends University of Central Kansas.

    posted by Patten on 8-12-2010 at 5:24 pm

  55. I attended college at Stevens Institute of Technology (SIT) in Hoboken, NJ. I am not sure if this is actually true or not, but I’ve heard stories that at one point, the school’s name was Stevens Hoboken Institute of Technology.

    posted by Hobokenite on 8-12-2010 at 5:27 pm

  56. Salt Lake City, Utah often gets abbreviated to Salt Lake. Add that to Utah, and you’ve got the abbreviation SL,UT. Not much to do about that one.

    posted by Queen of Thieves on 8-12-2010 at 6:00 pm

  57. The Department of Wildlife Resources where I live recently changed its name to the Department of Natural Resources, abbreviated DNR, a common medical code for Do Not Resuscitate. Gets me every time.

    posted by Lu on 8-12-2010 at 6:48 pm

  58. When I saw WPPSS I though of something else: Whoop-a**!

    posted by ashley.paige on 8-12-2010 at 6:51 pm

  59. @Wallis Lane – that was freaking brilliant!!! Hahahahahahaha!!!

    posted by gary on 8-12-2010 at 7:11 pm

  60. Here in Montreal the transit authority used to be known as the “Société de Transport de la Communauté Urbaine de Montréal” the STCUM. Now it’s the “Société de Transport de Montréal. There are still plenty of pieces of equipment with STCUM on them though. Giggle.

    posted by Steve on 8-12-2010 at 7:32 pm

  61. When the San Diego Zoo opened the Wild Animal Park in 1972 they ran an employee contest to name the rail line around the park. It became the very African-sounding WGASA Bush Line. Only later did the employee ‘fess up to what WAGASA meant – Who Gives A S^*t Anyway…

    posted by Harvey on 8-12-2010 at 7:58 pm

  62. One of my friends just said today “I’m going to get a Ph.D. or an STD.” He meant a Doctor of Sacred Theology (Sacrae Theologiae Doctor).

    We were also discussing how amusing it is that you can go to school for Ministry and come out with at D.Min.

    posted by April on 8-12-2010 at 8:05 pm

  63. When British industrialists set up an umbrella organisation to promote their interests, they came up with “Federation of British Industries”. The initialism must have caused a little confusion as US television shows became more popular, and in 1965 they changed to “Confederation of British Industry”.

    There is an entirely unsubstantiated story that when the Province of British Columbia was creating its second university in the capital, Victoria (the first is UBC in Vancouver) there was a proposal to christen it with the romantic name “University of Juan de Fuca” from the strait on which Victoria sits . . . until somebody realised that it would immediately be abbreviated to “Fuca U”. Probably not true, but too good not to pass on.

    posted by Gollum on 8-12-2010 at 9:27 pm

  64. South Hampton Institute of Technology… home of the Sandwiches…
    “Ask me about my wiener!”

    posted by VitaminD on 8-12-2010 at 10:50 pm

  65. In Calgary we have a hobby store called PMS Hobbies. I have no idea what the PMS stands for, but it makes me giggle.

    posted by Colin on 8-12-2010 at 11:14 pm

  66. Legend has it that when my formerly Southern Baptist alma mater, Furman University (South Carolina), decided on their mascot, they went with the Christian Knight. I don’t know how long it took someone to realize there was a problem with the Furman University Christian Knights, but we’re now that Paladins. It’s still really fun to be able to yell “FU!” at the officials or the other team during athletic events.

    posted by Lynley on 8-12-2010 at 11:51 pm

  67. The K-12 state curriculum requirements (and associated tests) in Virginia are called the Standards of Learning, and recent pressure to pass the tests has lead to entire classes devoted to SOLs.

    posted by Kaitlin on 8-12-2010 at 11:55 pm

  68. People who work for the Public Utilities District in Snohomish County (Washington state) can be real PUDs. The people who work for Puget Sound Energy can get real PSE (pronounce “pissy”) when you don’t pay your bill on time. And if UPS loses your package, they just exclaim “UPS!” (pronounce “oops”).

    posted by Mike K on 8-13-2010 at 12:17 am

  69. 1. In addition to the SLUT in downtown Seattle, we have SKAT (SKAgit Transit).

    2. The FAA identifier for the Rapid City, SD airport is RAP. However, most public-use airports in the US have an implied ‘K’ prefix, so the identifier is actually KRAP.

    3. Years ago I worked at Tandy Corp in Fort Worth, TX. One of the VPs wanted to form a team of product engineers to be the front-line investigators for problems reported by big customers. He wanted to call it the Fast Action Response Team. Sigh…

    4. The call sign for the radio station in Antarctica is KOLD.

    posted by Keith on 8-13-2010 at 1:57 am

  70. The next city over has a middle school with the initials PMS and the kids move up to a high school with the initials of RU high.
    My kids think it’s pretty funny!

    posted by CropTillDawn on 8-13-2010 at 5:01 am

  71. I’ve always thought that KIA was an especially unfortunate choice, and keep waiting to hear that they’ve changed their name.

    posted by Julie on 8-13-2010 at 9:38 am

  72. http://www.manta.com/c/mmf57k3/fag-bearings-corporation

    I drive by this place every year on vacation. It’s in BIG RED LETTERS on the side of the building – F*G. Someone in the public relations department is going to be fired soon.

    posted by Brad on 8-13-2010 at 9:51 am

  73. My mother-in-law taught at the Citadel where she had the honorary rank of Major in the South Carolina Unorganized Militia aka S.C.U.M.

    posted by Stu on 8-13-2010 at 10:12 am

  74. Years ago I worked for a company called Barron Associates. Frequently we would get mail and packages with the company name abbreviated as “Bar Ass”.

    posted by Brian on 8-13-2010 at 12:48 pm

  75. In O’Brien County Iowa, one of the school districts is South O’Brien. People want to abbreviate it to S.O.B., but the school has worked hard to brand everything S.O.S. (South O’Brien School).

    posted by Lydia on 8-13-2010 at 1:03 pm

  76. heard of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front?

    posted by (^-_-^) on 8-13-2010 at 1:21 pm

  77. Why would you want to change your license plate if it read “WTF”? That’s so cool, I would like that! My friend’s license plate starts with a “VAG”.. I wonder if the NJ DMV would let her change hers free of charge.

    posted by Laura on 8-13-2010 at 1:24 pm

  78. Btw, this post reminds me of The Society for the Protection of Elfish Welfare from Harry Potter (S.P.E.W!) Hahahaha

    posted by Laura on 8-13-2010 at 1:25 pm

  79. At Walt Disney World’s Magic Kingdom, there’s an attration in Tomorrowland based on the Pixar film “Monsters, Inc.”

    It’s name? “Monster’s Inc. Laugh Floor.” MILF.

    I read somewhere that Disney absolutely bans its Cast Members from using this abbreviation, but I somehow suspect it comes up every now and then.

    posted by Kevin on 8-13-2010 at 2:13 pm

  80. This article was funny and reading the comments was hilarious You should do another article in the future.

    posted by Kari on 8-13-2010 at 2:43 pm

  81. In Virginia, the standardized tests the kids have to take to pass their grades are called “SOL”s. It stands for “Standards of Learning” but I think the other acronym is more fitting.

    posted by KerriD on 8-13-2010 at 2:57 pm

  82. The CRAY super-computer company upgrades every once in a while. Right now I believe it is up to the CRAY X series. I can’t wait until it gets to the CRAY Z.

    posted by Benjamin on 8-13-2010 at 3:29 pm

  83. I work right by the 14th St. F/M in NYC, and I know (at least by the entrance I go into) that the FML are still next to each other. Although it’s more like FM L/1/2/3. So they’re close, just not *as* close. Still makes me laugh every time I go home!

    posted by Rebecca on 8-13-2010 at 6:13 pm

  84. I grew up in Austin, Texas, where one of the main radio stations is called KUT (University of Texas radio).. I remember my dad mistakenly wore a kut shirt in the Netherlands, where the word is a vulgar term for a woman’s genitals… I was mortified

    posted by Ceasar on 8-13-2010 at 9:20 pm

  85. On an episode Of “Maude” (a spin-off Of “All in the Family”), Maude’s husband Arthur and their next-door neighbors wanted to form a group to protest homosexuality, and the neighbor came up with the name Fathers Against Gay Society, and Maude pointed out that it spelled F.A.G.S.

    posted by Bruce V. Bracken on 8-14-2010 at 12:35 am

  86. Always wondered about a car company calling itself KIA, which is a military abbreviation for Killed in Action.

    posted by Chuckles on 8-14-2010 at 7:48 pm

  87. In 2003 I was working as a programmer in Canada and was developing a Q/A software tool, the Software Action Request System, or SARS. In about April of that year, I had to quickly change the name. :P

    posted by MJH on 8-15-2010 at 11:17 am

  88. The First Unitarian Church of Berkeley is actually in Kensington CA, but they like using the initials F.U.C.B in the church bulletin….

    posted by zenvelo on 8-15-2010 at 4:22 pm

  89. Friends University of Central Kansas

    or now just Friends University

    posted by James in Kansas on 8-15-2010 at 5:22 pm

  90. @nancy pants – Plus, the We Energies site is weenergies.com. How could you not call it “Weiner gees dot com”? :)

    posted by Joe on 8-15-2010 at 10:24 pm

  91. Nice collection, but you did miss a big one here. It’s the true story of Margaret Chan, who was DG of the World Health Organisation when she was suddenly confronted with an outbreak of a new disease called Acute Respiratory Syndrome.

    Realising this was going to be a big crisis, she decided to add ‘Severe’ (even though it’s redundant, sitting next to ‘Acute’) for the sole reason of not wanting to have to deal with ARS for the next period in her life.

    posted by Jos. on 8-16-2010 at 3:37 am

  92. WTF still exists, called the world taekwondo federation, just that nobody wants to mock them to their face, so they get to keep the name :S

    posted by iz on 8-16-2010 at 4:43 am

  93. Love the acronyms. I cant imagine how many more there are that in foreign languages mean something obscene. Cheers!

    posted by Rob on 8-16-2010 at 6:18 am

  94. My cousin went to college in Farmville, VA where they determined Farmville Area Rapid Transit a great name for their busses until they put said acronym on the side of the bus and realized everyone was riding around on the FART.

    posted by Wendy on 8-16-2010 at 12:46 pm

  95. Great fun. Here’s another one – the American Sociological Society, now known as the American Sociological Association.

    posted by Kevin on 8-16-2010 at 3:27 pm

  96. @ Kat: The company I work for is a tenant in one of WTF Group’s buildings, and their correspondence illicits a round of chuckles when it comes in!

    posted by Beth on 8-16-2010 at 5:00 pm

  97. One of my all-time faves is the City Union Mission in KC.

    posted by Bryan on 8-17-2010 at 1:11 pm

  98. @ Sarah: I am right now proudly wearing my “WTF is Going On!” T-shirt. Always glad to support the Williamstown Theater Festival.

    posted by Satch on 8-18-2010 at 3:44 pm

  99. Here in the Beaver State, our tax collectors work for the Oregon Department of Revenue. Tax collectors get really peeved when you refer to the ODOR where they work. Such is life on the left coast.

    posted by Orygun on 8-22-2010 at 11:27 am

  100. There’s Fallbrook Union High School in San Diego County, CA, which makes buttons emblazoned with big giant FUs.

    But my personal favorite is the renamed Art History department at University of California, Santa Cruz. In 2004 or so, they changed it to History of Art and Visual Culture, HAVC, pronounced havoc. That one change alone probably got a lot of lonely art historians laid.

    posted by maggie on 8-24-2010 at 3:14 pm

  101. In the Philippines there’s an islamic separatist group called the “Moro Islamic Liberation Front” or MILF

    posted by anj on 8-24-2010 at 3:21 pm

  102. Lake Tahoe has a TART (Tahoe Area Rapid Transit)

    posted by Chris on 8-24-2010 at 4:25 pm

  103. I grew up in Piedmont, CA. And of course I went to Piedmont Middle School. Good old PMS.

    posted by Josh on 8-24-2010 at 4:42 pm

  104. San Luis Obispo California’s public transportation…SLO Transit!

    posted by Brian on 8-26-2010 at 12:13 pm

  105. Another one that could be added is a local company called Olympic Manufacturing Group that uses its initials on almost everything they have for the company. On their website, their logo includes the OMG and the slogan: We Make It Happen.

    their website is http://www.olyfast.com

    posted by Kelly Ann on 8-26-2010 at 12:51 pm

  106. South Lake Union Trolley was the original official name. We didn’t make that up for laughs.

    posted by Beth on 8-26-2010 at 8:46 pm

  107. my professor recently got married to a man whose initials are M & M, her first name starts with an S. so naturally we call them S & M, but not to their faces of course… =D

    posted by jules84 on 8-28-2010 at 12:05 am

  108. I noticed that mine had already been posted, but I have to share a story about it. My parents would travel to business conventions around the country, and the kids would receive much of the swag that companies would pass out on the exhibition floor; T-shirts, koozies, candies, etc. One of the tees was white, with dual orange racing stripes down the front, and big black letters over the heart that said FAG. My mum never could figure out why I wouldn’t wear that shirt at all; it went straight to the rag bin.

    posted by PaulS on 9-7-2010 at 6:14 pm

  109. Hah, this was an enjoyable read and reminds me of an unfortunate acronym of my own.

    My high school marching band was stylized as the “Golden Hawk Brigade” until concerned parents (who knows how though…) saw it’s shortened form GHB was also the shortened form of a date rape drug.

    Needless to say, our marching band was renamed (rather blandly) after our high school. I still am not sure how it is parents somehow recognized it, and a group of 60+ teens had no idea until it was pointed out. You would think that at least the rather bawdy drumline would have noticed XD

    posted by Sam on 9-7-2010 at 9:58 pm

  110. Suomi College here in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan changed its name to Finlandia University. What makes it worse is that it is a conservative Finnish American Lutheran college. And they are in Hancock, Michigan….. Tourists love to buy the FU shirts and caps. Ah, I just realized that they are FU in the UP! Ha!

    posted by Jim on 9-12-2010 at 9:06 am

  111. There was a feminist organization in the 1970′s called Status of Women, which, of course, carried the acronym SOW.

    posted by KC Husker on 9-13-2010 at 12:52 pm

  112. I can’t believe no one mentioned the letters for Charlotte-Douglas Int’l – CLT. Who doesn’t love flying there?

    posted by Hilary on 9-13-2010 at 7:56 pm

  113. The east coast of Central Florida is nicknamed “The Space Coast” in honor of the Kennedy Space Center, and the public bus service is named “Space Coast Area Transit” or SCAT. The official website is actually ridescat.com, not something I’d want to Google at work, even if I needed to know the bus schedule.

    posted by no on 9-29-2010 at 5:17 pm

  114. In Memphis our public transit… Memphis area transit authority is called mata on all the buses it’s using the abb. Mata in Spanish it means death lol

    posted by Meghan on 10-5-2010 at 10:13 pm

  115. AYDS the appetite suppressant mentioned earlier, was originally spelled AIDS. The tried changing their name, but the die was cast.

    posted by RonNasty64 on 10-6-2010 at 8:38 am

  116. WPPSS: I saw “wipes”.

    posted by Cecelia on 10-6-2010 at 6:03 pm

  117. When I lived in Greensboro, NC, I was always amused by the fact that our local buses were all run by the Greensboro Transit Authority – GTA. But I’m confused as to why you’d think that the Wisconsin Tourism Federation would have been around longer than the phrase WTF. Vulgar words have a much longer and richer history with humanity than tourism does~

    posted by Micah on 10-14-2010 at 9:29 pm

  118. Caitlin- did somebody not “get brain”?
    Tenderfoot- your comment made me LOL!

    posted by Sara in Al on 10-18-2010 at 2:45 pm

  119. When I was pregnant, I thought a great boy name would be Sean O’Neil Bailey…
    until I realized the initials were SOB.
    I had a girl, so it really didn’t matter, but I still laugh at my idea.

    posted by Kelly on 10-29-2010 at 7:03 pm

  120. I live in WI, so I heard about that first one a while back. :) It did make me smile.

    posted by Araxie on 11-8-2010 at 1:37 am

  121. Conversation often heard in NY some years ago:
    “What train can I take?”
    “Ah, ya can take the B,D,F an’ Q”
    “Hey, watch your mouth…”

    FAG is a major German company, Farben AG

    The S.H.I.T. school was always said to be Sam Houston Tech. I’m not sure if Stevens Institiute of Technology ever had “Hoboken” in it’s name.

    Fairfield University is a good school, but its overland track team is known as F.U.C.C.

    posted by Michael on 11-16-2010 at 10:15 pm

  122. When the WA Institute of Technology (WAIT) in Perth, Western Australia was renamed in the 80s / 90s it was originally going to be the Curtin Univeristy of New Technology. Alas the “New Technology” was dropped.

    posted by anaussie on 11-17-2010 at 9:53 am

  123. There’s a military group in the southern Philippines called the Moro Islamic Liberation Front. It just doesn’t sound quite right to hear about the MILF rebels…

    posted by Barbara on 11-19-2010 at 8:51 am

  124. My favorite of all time is a Quaker School in Wichita – Friends University of Central Kansas.

    posted by VR on 11-19-2010 at 10:06 pm

  125. SCAT- Space Coast Area Transit. It on theside of all the local buses and busstops.

    posted by KALEY on 12-6-2010 at 9:24 am

  126. I work for Sutter Health Information Technology. Someone decided we should be Information Services instead.

    posted by Sutter on 12-6-2010 at 7:38 pm

  127. For the airport codes, you missed Little Rock, AR. LIT may not be anything special, but the ICAO code is KLIT.

    posted by John on 12-8-2010 at 2:25 am

  128. CREEP
    The Commitee to Re-elect the President
    ( Nixon )

    posted by mike on 12-12-2010 at 5:14 pm

  129. There’s a terrorist organisation in the Philippines called MILF (Moro Islamic Liberation Front). Makes for some funny headlines eg “MILF kills two marines…”

    posted by Jono on 12-16-2010 at 6:28 pm

  130. Pacific Northwest University of Health Sciences PNUHS. although they write it as PNWUHS, but when it first opened a few years back, we would always refer to it as penis

    posted by Austen on 12-24-2010 at 4:58 am

  131. My favorite acronym is SNAFU. My dad used it frequently.

    posted by Kelly on 12-24-2010 at 10:36 pm

  132. Hope those ambulance drivers don’t have to take too much flack from members of the AME Church.

    posted by Tim on 12-28-2010 at 9:54 am

  133. The power supplier in NYC is Consolidated Edison…everyone calls it ConEd and I do feel “conned” when I pay the bill.

    posted by KDawg on 1-7-2011 at 2:13 pm

  134. I work at a nuclear power plant and the last several years the major topic has been Human Performance. Several years ago, management decided that we needed some Human Performance training. But, instead of calling it that, they named it Special High Intensity Training. Needless to say, no one in management had the required juvenile sense of humor to figure out what the working people were going to call this training. It didn’t take long after the memo came out before they changed the name, but it was far too late by then.

    posted by Ken B. on 1-7-2011 at 11:08 pm

  135. One of the best ones I’ve seen – with the recent Wikileaks scandal, the CIA made a group to investigate. It ended up being the Wikileaks Task Force.

    posted by tkrausse on 1-20-2011 at 4:20 pm

  136. It always makes me smile to see the company A G Edwards’s web site name agedwards.com. I always see Aged Wards.

    posted by Kay S on 1-26-2011 at 3:39 pm

  137. The Rochester Institute of Technology (commonly referred to as “RIT”) is actually not in Rochester at all, but South Henrietta (you can put that together yourself).

    I attended Phillips Middle School which was proudly referred to as PMS particularly by the female health teacher.

    There is a common phrase for spoiled rich jewish children, calling them Jewish American Prince(ss) which is often just abbreviated to JAP. A friend of mine was proud of this designation and got it tattooed on her neck not realizing it was also a racial slur.

    posted by Jess on 1-27-2011 at 8:11 pm

  138. Here’s one: CRAP

    Charles River Arts Program.

    The school I went to as a child is called Charles River, and they have a summer program called the CRAP, Charles River Arts Program. Though, since 2006, a year after it started, they changed the name to CRACP: Charles River Creative Arts Program. Every still calls it crap, though.

    posted by Will on 2-4-2011 at 9:32 pm

  139. Gale-Ettrick-Trempealeau High School in Southwestern Wisconsin is affectionately known as “GET” High

    posted by Mike on 3-17-2011 at 10:17 pm

  140. The college I attended had two special courses designed to satisfy science and math requirements for humanities majors. The course numbers were S&M 101 and S&M 102.

    Some years later, I was asked to make some name tags for a meeting on some agricultural issues. One tag read (named changed for privacy), “John Doe DOA – DNR”. When I asked about what seemed to be a joke, I was informed that it stood for “Department of Agriculture – Department of Natural resources.”

    posted by Daniel Latinus on 4-20-2011 at 12:40 pm

  141. I occasionally work with my state’s dnr, department of natural resources, and every time I ride in a boat with them I try to get to the life jackets first, so I don’t end up with a life jacket with DNR written on it….

    posted by Emma on 5-3-2011 at 11:47 am

  142. Another ill conceived acronym is that of the National Indian Gaming Association, or NIGA. No kidding, you can buy their t-shirts!

    posted by pcarinii on 5-4-2011 at 10:54 am

  143. Pretty funny. I got one from the PVTA, the equivalent of the T of Western MA. PVTA looks like “puta” which (I think) means “b*tch” in Spanish.

    posted by elsieWu on 5-14-2011 at 7:11 pm

  144. If Souix City had decided to accept the change, it would have been announced as “SUX to be GAY”.

    posted by Bob on 5-23-2011 at 2:16 pm

  145. VAG = Volkswagen Audi Gruppe. hahaha

    posted by Kennon on 5-23-2011 at 6:51 pm

  146. Another one for you;
    The State Legislative Office Building or SLOB next to the Capitol building in Hartford, CT.

    posted by Steve on 5-30-2011 at 8:27 pm

  147. The airport near me is Leeds And Bradford International Airport… or LABIA…

    posted by Vicky on 6-7-2011 at 6:17 am

  148. Not only is the Virginia standardized tests called the SOL (as mentioned early) the Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS) curriculum to prepare for it is called the Program of Study (POS), so you must study the POS in order to succeed on the SOL.

    FCPS also now has an Advanced Academics program, so a few times a year, we teachers get emails asking us to come to the AA meetings.

    posted by Adam on 6-8-2011 at 9:59 am

  149. My hometown of Belleville Canada was building a new high school in the mid-1960s. Because Belleville is the country seat of Hastings County, the original name was to be the South Hastings Institute of Technology. Only when the architects’ drawings featured students wearing SHIT jackets did it dawn on school trustees that this was not an appropriate name. They ended up calling the school Centennial, as it opened the year Canada celebrated its 100th birthday.

    posted by CapitalCat on 8-4-2011 at 5:42 pm

  150. I remember reading about the Southern Tenant Farmers Union in high school and having quite a hearty chuckle. Of course, that was from the late 1800s, so the initials are purely coincidental.

    posted by BD on 8-6-2011 at 9:08 pm

  151. Several years ago Michigan Tech in the UP built the Center for Integrated Learning and Information Technology, abbreviated CILIT. Most of us at the time ignored the first “i” and called it the CLIT. Word got around and the university now calls it Rehki Hall.

    posted by Steph on 8-7-2011 at 9:44 am

  152. There’s also the College Of Notre Dame Of Maryland. It’s a common joke amongst Baltimorons that it’s the natural result of a bunch of nuns naming a school.

    posted by Doug on 8-8-2011 at 3:59 pm

  153. Champaign and Urbana, IL have the Champaign Urbana Mass Transit District which is commonly just referred to as the Cum TD.

    posted by Ken on 8-11-2011 at 4:11 pm

  154. Tenderfoot beat me to the tale of Santa Clara Area Transit, but to make it even worse, or better, the logo was in yellow and brown.

    Also in the SF Bay Area what was supposed to be the First Unitarian Church of Kensington ended up, just over the city line, being the Third Unitarian Church of Berkeley.

    posted by Jack Fertig on 8-12-2011 at 2:24 am

  155. One of the Bay Area’s most popular radio stations in the ’70s and ’80s had the call letters KOME. (I am not making this up.)

    Not only did they play good music, they had far too much fun with the callsign, with slogans like “Don’t touch that dial – it’s got KOME on it!” and “Stereo 98.5 – wake up with KOME in both ears!”

    posted by Don on 8-13-2011 at 10:08 am

  156. There is a consolidated high school in western Wisconsin, near La Crosse, made of three towns: Gale, Ettrick and Trempealeau. The students commonly refer to it as GET High.

    posted by Luke on 8-14-2011 at 12:16 am

  157. Up here in Alaska we had a public school named…
    Palmer Middles School.
    That’s right, a gym full of junior highers chanting PMS!
    It is now called Palmer Junior Middle School.

    posted by Kaziganthi on 8-28-2011 at 5:17 pm

  158. At the United Nations in Geneva where I was working, they quickly changed the new name for the data processing section when I printed the manual for the Data Processing and Information System Services – Opec Financial Flows (DPISS-OFF).

    posted by DiAnnie on 8-29-2011 at 10:32 am

  159. wasnt there a MILF abbreviation a few years ago

    Like Milwaukee soemthing something

    posted by chaz on 8-30-2011 at 1:05 pm

  160. A personal favorite of mine is the South Tahoe Utility and Power District, pronounced STUPiD.

    posted by Ken G on 9-26-2011 at 1:54 pm

  161. Here’s one from my town

    South Tahoe Public Utilities District.

    Everyone, even management, refers to them as “stupid”

    posted by Jenny Tull on 9-26-2011 at 3:40 pm

  162. Close to my campus is the Fencing Academy of Philadelphia…. also known as FAP

    posted by aimee on 10-6-2011 at 12:53 pm

  163. Re: the CCRA party

    The best part of the whole Alliance announcement was watching the news anchors trying to talk about the new CCRAP party. There is nothing better than seeing people who are usually so serious and professional lose it on live tv. :D

    posted by Eden on 10-16-2011 at 12:35 pm

  164. I believe the all-time winner in the accidental meaningful acronym competition has to be the original name used by the US government for the invasion of Iraq:
    Operation Iraqi Liberation. OIL

    http://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2003/03/20030324-4.html

    posted by Paul on 10-24-2011 at 2:47 pm

  165. Treasure Island, FL has the Treasure Island Transit System, TITS.

    posted by Brandi on 10-29-2011 at 6:28 pm

  166. Don’t forget the organization mooted in an old episode of “Red Dwarf:” ‘The Committee for the Liberation and Integration of Terrifying Organisms and their Rehabilitation Into Society.’ Rimmer observes the one problem with this.

    posted by QDV on 11-16-2011 at 5:36 pm

  167. WTF = Welcome to Facebook !

    posted by Safvi on 12-3-2011 at 11:02 am

  168. The PSA Group (manufacturer of Peugeot and Citroën vehicles) introduced the acronym FAP to the world before it became another synonym for, ahem, “Dancing with myself”…in the PSA terminology, FAP stands for “Filtre à particules” or dieses particle filter.

    Okay, you can’t really blame the engineers and marketing geniuses for that one, but WTF made Peugeot come up with the additional “Tepee” for their small Bipper MPV???

    posted by Schweinhund! on 12-4-2011 at 6:40 am

  169. TO ALL THOSE THAT HAVE ONLY HIGHLIGHTED OUR CITY CODE, OBVIOUSLY YOU ARE A TRANSIT OR TOURIST-EITHER WAY, YOU’RE INSIGNIFICANT TO THE NATIVE PENSACOLIANS. THAT YOU CAN’T PRAISE ITS WORTHINESS OF NATURAL BEAUTY # PROUD NATIVE

    posted by Deo volente on 12-4-2011 at 10:09 am

  170. KIA Killed In Action……guess it means car in some country.

    posted by dave on 12-4-2011 at 10:48 am

  171. It can be fun…
    Our Northern Territory brewery use to have a 2l bottle of beer, lovingly referred to as the Darwin Stubby. It bore the initials NTB.

    When Carlton United Breweries (Victoria, Australia) bought out the Northern Territory Brewery, the initials on the bottles were altered to reflect the new ownership as: Carlton United Northern Territory…

    End result: many thousands of said bottles smashed & recycled. Shame.

    posted by PGS on 12-28-2011 at 5:10 am

  172. Of course you have Pres. Richard Nixon’s re-election committee — CREEP (Committee to Re-Elect the President). Appropriate for a guy who kept an enemies’ list, spied on friends and enemies and who was behind the Watergate break in…

    posted by Veto on 12-31-2011 at 4:55 am

  173. AYDS was always AYDS as long as it was advertised.(not changed from AIDS)
    CFLITOTRS doesn’t make sense.
    yes… KIA, CREEP, FRIENDS UNIVERSITY,…. but do you have to post over and over?

    posted by gino on 1-9-2012 at 9:11 pm

  174. The British Association of Plastic Surgeons was aptly abbreviated to BAPS.

    posted by Steamy on 1-27-2012 at 2:05 pm

  175. Gino. Seriously?

    Committee for the
    Liberation and
    Integration of
    Terrifying
    Organisms and their
    Rehabilitation
    Into
    Society

    CLITORIS.

    posted by bertie on 1-29-2012 at 4:54 pm

  176. Are you down with the Ontario Provincial Police? Yeah, you know me.
    http://www.opp.ca

    posted by Jeff F on 2-8-2012 at 4:42 pm

  177. I’ve heard rumors (unconfirmed of course) that the student-run radio station at the University of North Texas is (was?) KUNT.

    posted by tiacheryl on 2-10-2012 at 11:04 am

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