Both the US and USA are names used by the North American Federal Republic. The US is used in colloquial speech while the USA is the official abbreviation of the official name of the United States of America.
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What does the US and the USA mean?
The US is the abbreviation for the United States. It is internationally recognized as the American Union. Other state unions such as the European Union aren’t known as the United States of Europe, but rather than the European Union or the EU.
The USA is the official abbreviated name of the North American country. You see it in official documents and at international sporting events. The National soccer team of USA is the term used to describe the sports team and not the National US team of Soccer.
What the U.S.A. describes
The United States of America is a union of 50 federal states. It’s located in North America and it’s bordered by the Pacific and by the Atlantic Oceans. The country was first colonized by the British in the 1600s and the states of the Union were just forming. All of these states came together under The Declaration of Independence (from the British) on July 4th, 1776.
The USA came together as one nation with 50 states. Its capital city is Washington DC. Local laws can be voted in each state but these states also have to come together under federal law.
Other names of the US
The US wasn’t always known under this name. There were a lot of debates about how to name the country once all of its states came together. Initially, the proposed name was the United Colonies of North America. This changed a few times even if it appeared in the press.
But the official name of the country was agreed upon in the Declaration of Independence. It’s here that those who wrote it decided on the name of the United States of America.
The country could not have been named America. The entire continent got the name of America but the cultural and historic difference between colonies have led to the creation of states. If the US would have been named America, it could have been confused with other states on the continent such as Mexico. This is why the name of the USA clearly distinguishes between the country and other countries on the North American continent.
Conclusion
You can use both US and USA when you describe the federation of 50 states on the North American continent. Both versions are accepted, even in writing. However, official documents and names are generally distinguished by the USA name.
In other words, both versions might be accepted but the USA gets the thumbs up when it comes to all matters of any official importance. To mark the historic events that united the 50 states, the name of the USA should be used instead of America according to what the founding fathers of the country decided. Congress created the USA from 50 colonies.
