All city names in DAT One must fit within 14 characters. While DAT One is often very flexible with accepting names, it can help to understand our abbreviation rules in order to help find the correct city name more easily.
Certain starter words are abbreviated consistently, regardless of character length. These abbreviations are as follows:
If the first word is... | DAT prefers... |
| North, South, East, West | N,S,E,W |
| Fort | Ft |
| Gr | Grand |
| Mount | Mt |
| Mountain | Mtn |
| Saint, Sainte, Ste | St |
There are many other abbreviations that are applied only to city names when exceeding the 14-character limit. These abbreviations are as follows:
| Common Word | Abbreviation |
|---|---|
| Beach | Bch |
| Bluffs | Blfs |
| Center, Centre | Ctr |
| City | Cy |
| Commerce | Cmmrce |
| Creek | Ck |
| Falls | Fls |
| Gateway | Gtwy |
| Harbor | Hbr |
| Heights | Hts |
| Industry | Indus |
| Isle, Island | Is |
| Junction | Jct |
| Little | Ltl |
| Mills | Mls |
| Mount | Mt |
| Mountain | Mtn |
| Plains | Plns |
| Point, Pointe | Pt |
| River | Rvr |
| Spring, Springs | Spg, Spgs |
| Station | Sta |
| Terrace | Trc |
| Township | Twp |
| Valley | Vly |
| Village | Vlg |
| Ville | Vl |
Some city names have to be abbreviated dramatically to fit within the 14-character limit (e.g. Ltl Rvr Acdmy, TX). If you have difficulty finding the city name that DAT One or Power will accept, try entering the ZIP code instead.
Please note that we use the USPS's Zip Code Lookup as the source of truth for zip codes and associated city names.