Comments on: Unintelligible status symbols?

Question: Unintelligible status symbols?

acrasis — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 16:31:29 -0800

What are those oval stickers with 2-3 capital letters in them? If the car is parked, I can get close enough to see that the letters are codes for different geographical locations, but you can't see that when you and the other car are on the road, so I don't quite get the concept. If I'm going to be envious, I need to be able to decode the things. Can anyone explain?

By: Xhris

Xhris — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 16:37:40 -0800

Comes from Europe. All/lots-of cars have their 3 letter country code on the back.

Don't know if a legal requirement (so local cops know where to decode the variety of license plates) or if it's just a "hello, I'm from xxxxxx" thing.

By: Chairboy

Chairboy — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 16:41:40 -0800

It's not a legal requirement AFAIK, it's more of a 'hello' thing, personally I've never really understood it....

By: Lionel d'Lion

Lionel d'Lion — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 16:42:16 -0800

They're international vehicle registration codes and there's a list of the codes on Wikipedia (of course).

By: halogen

halogen — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 16:43:39 -0800

There used to be a requirement to have the a sticker identifying where your car is registered if you travel outside the borders of your country. Read more about it and see all the codes here. E.U. license plates feature the same country code on the left side of the license plate now.

By: AwkwardPause

AwkwardPause — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 16:45:06 -0800

It seems that Americans have also appropriated the phenomenon. I saw a lot of SLO stickers around San Luis Obispo, and here in Massachusetts, the ACK sticker is pretty common (the airport code for Nantucket).

By: Brockles

Brockles — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 16:45:20 -0800

If you mean the stickers that have letters approximately 2-3 inches high (white background, black letters) then they are the country codes from days of yore for identifying cars from foreign countries (as Xhris says). I believe, at one stage, they were either compulsory or strongly approved of. They certainly aren't a legal requirement now, though.

However, there's no way you can't read these at some considerable distance, so either we are off on our assessment, or your eyesight is incredibly bad.

By: idb

idb — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 16:49:34 -0800

On the East coast of the US you see a lot of OBX for Outer Banks.

By: acrasis

acrasis — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 16:49:45 -0800

I should have indicated that I'm in the US. The ones I've seen on parked cars are for ridiculous places like Frederick, MD, that no one could possibly care you came from. And I've seen so many different 3-letter codes that it boggles my mind that anyone could memorize the code. I just don't get it.

By: jayder

jayder — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 16:51:06 -0800

A lot of pretentious jackasses in the U.S. put them on their cars to signify their worldliness.

By: lore

lore — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 16:51:09 -0800

There are a lot of joke country code stickers out there, like the aforementioned SLO, or "WTF".

By: lore

lore — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 16:52:13 -0800

"And I've seen so many different 3-letter codes that it boggles my mind that anyone could memorize the code."

You're not supposed to memorize the code, in part because there is no overall code. Some of the stickers have the explanation in small text, in others you're just supposed to chuckle if you're in the know.

By: saffry

saffry — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 16:56:05 -0800

I always understood them to be code for places where people had summer homes or liked to vacation. That's why OBX and ACK are so popular. I see a lot of ADK for the Adirondacks, and for awhile I lived on a Georgia Island where lots of cars had SSI (St. Simon's Island) stickers.

By: Hargrimm

Hargrimm — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 16:57:11 -0800

In my area of the U.S. (VA), they're mostly just a wink-wink-nudge-nudge "hey, look where I went on vacation" thing. Lots are places are appropriating the fad, like a local restaurant has one that says its initials , and you get a $5 coupon if you buy one and stick it on your car.

By: Class Goat

Class Goat — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 17:00:19 -0800

I suspect "ACK" is popular because it's a geek joke. (Is there a "NAK"?)

By: SNWidget

SNWidget — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 17:01:51 -0800

They're for all sorts of things. My girlfriend is a fan of the band "Over the Rhine," so she has one on her car that says (OtR). It doesn't mean anything except the specific few people who would identify it.

By: fructose

fructose — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 17:02:27 -0800

They seem to be a fad in the US, based on those European stickers. People either have them to represent where they live, or where they've been. Or they're some sort of inside joke.

By: LionIndex

LionIndex — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 17:08:20 -0800

In my area, these were popular around the turn of the century for identifying what part of town you lived in, and were pretty typically limited to the more hoity-toity places or beach communities. La Jolla had LJ, Rancho Santa Fe had RSF, Ocean Beach had OB, Pacific Beach had PB, Cardiff-by-the-Sea had CBS, and so on -- basically places where someone could, rightly or wrongly, brag about where they were from. The stickers were originally made by a company called LoCals (a portmanteau of local and Cal) and covered a range of areas across southern California. I've also seen ones that have abbreviations for areas in Orange County and LA.

I've hardly seen them at all the last couple years, which is either due to them dropping in popularity or that I don't work in La Jolla any more.

By: nitsuj

nitsuj — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 17:09:10 -0800

my favorite. :)

By: clerestory

clerestory — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 17:19:51 -0800

I have one that says FOO from ThinkGeek, although it looks like they don't sell them anymore. In the southeast I see a lot of OBX and HHI (Hilton Head Island).

By: yclipse

yclipse — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 17:23:16 -0800

OK, nit, I need an explanation.

By: Chairboy

Chairboy — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 17:26:25 -0800

Very Great Britain?

By: namewithoutwords

namewithoutwords — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 17:29:05 -0800

the best one I ever saw was in Pittsburgh: N'AT.

By: phrontist

phrontist — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 17:29:56 -0800

It's short for "vagabond", a term that has lately developed a sort of cachet for traveling youth.

By: decathecting

decathecting — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 17:32:00 -0800

Are you saying that you don't understand why people would want to have bumperstickers advertising locations for which they feel affinity? Or that these in particular seem ineffective because they're too small to read? If the former, there are some good explanations above. If the latter, I'd suggest you have your eyes checked, as people with normal vision should be able to read 3 inch-high letters from 10 feet away.

By: Emanuel

Emanuel — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 17:32:53 -0800

Where I'm from (Victoria, B.C.) these tend to be used by European immigrants to indicate their country of origin. My parents had an NL sticker because they immigrated from Holland and were proud of their Dutch heritage even in their new home of Canada. Back when the stickers were compulsory in Europe for travel outside of the home country (because old license plates had no indication of their country, unlike license plates in the US and Canada which have always indicated the state/province of origin) it'd just be something you brought back with you after a visit to the old country and stuck on your car.

By: dforemsky

dforemsky — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 18:55:39 -0800

"the best one I ever saw was in Pittsburgh: N'AT."

Even better is "N@"

By: ericb

ericb — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 19:08:14 -0800

I always understood them to be code for places where people had summer homes or liked to vacation.

Indeed the trend in the U.S. seems to have been modelled on the European auto stickers/decals and started with those which were identified by the Federal Aviation Administration's official 3 letter code for airports at such places: ACK -- Nantucket.

Others created stickers based on city/town/county license plate I.D.'s, such as ZG - Aspen/Pitken County, CO.

Later others caught on, but used abbreviations of the placename KW -- Key West, FI -- Fire Island, etc.

By: ersatzkat

ersatzkat — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 19:28:37 -0800

I live in ridiculous Frederick MD and I have one on my car that says FHS for Frederick High School - we had them made at makestickers.com - you can order anywhere from 1 to however many you can afford. I've often thought I'd like one that says "MeFi" for the long trip down I-270.

By: caddis

caddis — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 20:35:59 -0800

I think this is one of those preppy fads that has leaked into the general population.

By: gimonca

gimonca — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 20:59:15 -0800

In this area, they're more likely to be ethnic pride than anything else. Most often people of Scandinavian or maybe Baltic ancestry.

By: fshgrl

fshgrl — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 21:38:03 -0800

Around here they're usually BRC for Black Rock City.

By: dhartung

dhartung — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 00:06:05 -0800

In the Upper Midwest these are, as gimonca notes, particularly popular for Scandinavian-Americans, often adjacent to the appropriate national flag. The "Yuppie" vacation-spot and/or just humorous locality abbreviation existed but never was widespread, at least in Chicago. I remember a few "UP" stickers though.

I really don't think in most cases envy is the object. It's more like a "hello" to those in the know.

By: carbide

carbide — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 03:55:25 -0800

European anecdata and totally incidental to your question, but:

About fifteen-twenty years ago, camping holiday operators would send out a country code sticker with the booking confirmation. This was the kind of holiday where budget and the cost of flying at the time meant you could assume everyone was going to go by car ferry - seriously, hearing of people flying was like hearing they were bathing in champagne, indulgent and bizarre. Every car on the campsite and the ferry had a country code sticker, and it did serve both a social and informative function - "hello, where in Germany are you from?" to saving the campsite coordinators or children's group staff from bursting into French to a Welsh family. The stickers would just stay on after the holiday (to my car-lovin' dad's displeasure - it wasn't mandatory but it would have been weird to not use it).

I would be idly interested in knowing how much the popularity of those holidays had decreased, because I can't remember the last time I've seen one of those stickers, and cheap flights are (currently) ubiquitous. I can't imagine any of the young families I know, equivalent in income/standard of living to my family when I was young, going for anything like that.

By: fijiwriter

fijiwriter — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 05:02:48 -0800

Around these parts (what counts for affluent Mississippi), those stickers break down into two camps: where you go to snow ski or what Gulf Coast beach you vacation at. How pretentious that you need a sticker on your car to prove you go on vacations.

I've been seeing far fewer band-related ones: OAR or DMB for the college kids.

By: wenestvedt

wenestvedt — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 06:11:23 -0800

carbide, in 1988 my best friend & his dad flew from the U.S. to London and bought a used car at auction. They drove all around Europe for three months (and I joined them for about five weeks. Wheee!) The car had a sticker reading "GB," which francophone friends told us the French mocked for meaning "roast beef." Not being British ourselves, we found this hilarious.

Though weexpecte himto abandon the POS before it could disintegrate, Bluesmobile-like, my friend's dad actually sold the card again at a car auction in Whitechapel after logging thousands of miles on it. He'd also done work like replacing the brakes (which failed in the Alps!) while parked in a campground atop a ridge outside Nice. Only one way to test them: drive down toward the sea! *gulp*

By: apostrophe

apostrophe — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 06:43:43 -0800

Stuff White People Like says:

"The only other acceptable sticker option for white people is the white oval country tag sticker used commonly in Europe to help identify cars that cross international borders. Though they actually serve a function in Europe, white people use the stickers to show people where they like to take vacations. If you know a white person with one of these stickers, it's always a good idea to ask them about where they got the sticker. Your question will justify the presence of the sticker and make the white person feel great."

By: grapefruitmoon

grapefruitmoon — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 11:24:42 -0800

I've spent many a vacation in Plum Island, MA and its sticker would add some absolute geek value to any car - I'm surprised I haven't seen more of them:

PI.

In this area, they're more likely to be ethnic pride than anything else. Most often people of Scandinavian or maybe Baltic ancestry.

Funny story: I lived in Iceland and was married to an Icelander. On my last trip to Iceland in June of '07, I bought an "IS" sticker for my car. (Complete with shiny Icelandic flag!)

In July we broke up.

In September, I sold the car.

Let this be a warning to you.

By: atchafalaya

atchafalaya — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 21:55:33 -0800

BiH - Bosni i Herzegovini, baby!