Abbreviations: Geographical names

On this page

• Names of provinces and territories
• Other geographical names
• Additional information

Names of provinces and territories

In text, the names of provinces and territories may be abbreviated when they follow the name of a city, town, village or geographical feature:

• Wawa, Ont.
• Mount Robson, B.C.
• Whitehorse, Y.T.

In mailing addresses, the official two-letter postal abbreviations (written without periods) should be used:

• Wawa, ON  P0S 0A2
• Vancouver, BC  V5R 5P8
• Whitehorse, YT  Y1A 0A1

For more information, see the article Abbreviations: Canadian provinces and territories.

Other geographical names

Don’t abbreviate words such as County, Fort, Mount, North, Point, Island, Port and Saint used as part of a proper noun, unless the official name for the location shows the abbreviated form:

• Fort Garry
• Point Pelee
• Sable Island
• Port Radium
• Saint John, N.B.

but

• St. John’s, N.L.
• St. Mary River, Alta.

If in doubt, you can find the official names for geographical locations in Canada in the Canadian Geographical Names Database on the Natural Resources Canada website (opens in new tab).

Additional information

• Abbreviations: Canadian provinces and territories

Other resources

• Canadian Geographical Names Database (opens in new tab) (Natural Resources Canada)