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THE CHAPMAN COUNTY CODES

Code CHAPMAN dcs comi6a du Royaume Uni el dc la R6publiquc d'Irlande

When the English Place Name Society was established in 1923 a series ofabbreviations was
produced lor the English counties in existence at that time. Many of lhere consisted of only
one lctter, some of two and a few ofthreeletters. In 1973 the Saeiely oiGenealagistsextendcd
thin system to eovcr the other counlicr in the British Islesand published a list ofabbreviations
in the Genealogisls Magazine, Val 17 No 6. The Post Office and other authoritiex aver the
years have been using other standards of abbreviate county namex; with [he ereationof new
counties and the amalgamation of others in 1974 the accepted, if notacceptable,contractions
multiplied. The Federation of Family History Societies king founded in 1974 not only
brought together many indit,iduals and groups all having cause to frequently mcntioneounty
names within the British lalcs, butalsocreatcd interest among many 1hourandnofothera.eaeh
requiring to abbreviate a county name. and eachappearing to choose a different system.
The advcnt of computers and the delirability lor standardisation, to enable coding of
computer programmer to beeffected with theleast eonlusion, led thaseolus workingonthese
projects lodevkea Three Letter Coded System foreacholthe counties withinthe British Isles.
Wherever possible thesystems proposed and used by the English Plaec Name Society and thc
Society ol Gencalogirts have been retained within the present system; where necessary. those
systems have had the abbreviations extended lo three letters insueh a way thalwhenlheseare
truncated, the former system is attained. This has not always produced the mast logical
abbreviation il those three lctterr were already allocated by a previous system to another
county, and in two cases the Utopian idea was impossible. For example. Co. the 1923
abbreviation for Cornwall would logically be extended lo Cor, but as this had been allocated
in 1973 lo Cork,theeode olCon waschoren;Si,nowbeingSsxforSusser.and IOW inplacc
al Wt for the Isle ol Wight (to bring it inlo line with the Isle al Man), are exceptions to the
general rules used to derive the present coded system for the counties within the British Isles.
As the post-1974eounties have also been included lor compleleness,and toobviatcdivergent
applications in decades to come, other anticipated abbreviations could not be in1roduced;lor
example Cumberland. originally Cu. had to become Cul to prewnt confusion with Cumbria
which is abbreviated lo Cma.
As 1 was responsibleforintraducingihe present County Codes lo somecomputerised work on
records, the system wasal first drolly referred loan the Chapmancounty Coder although,as
stated above. 1 merely derived or adapted the abbreviations lrom those long established by
others. Hautver, this alliterative title has adhered to the System and I ofkr it here lo be used
lreely by all, in the hope that less conlurion combined with a greater acceleration 01 the
recording and retrieving olgeographical and historical data may be achieved.
By courtesy ol
Colin R. Chapman

NEW ADDRESS:
The Dioven
6 Holywell Rd. Dunley. GLS.
GLI I 5RS ENGLAND

Please turn lo abbreviations listed on pages 29-31,

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