03/04/09

Nebraska

COUNTY CODES

Map Courtesy of Digital-Topo-Maps.com

County codes:  From 1922 through 1950 and from 1952 to the present Nebraska has coded the plates numerically by county as a prefix.  In 1951, Nebraska used county letters.  Numbers were assigned by population with the largest receiving number 1 and so on. 

In 1951 counties were grouped according to their initial letter.  The first county got to use the letter as a single letter.  The next counties used the initial letter and the next letter in their name provided it was not an U, O, or Q.  If the second letter was unusable then the third was tried etc.  Each subsequent county in that group did the same avoiding not only I, O, and Q but also any letter used by a previous county in their grouping.  Douglas County (Omaha) was assigned the letter "X" arbitrarily so it would have a single letter prefix and thus be able to issue more plates for the State's most populous county.  "Z" was assigned to Otoe County because "O" was not permitted.  Dodge County became DG when it should have been DD - apparently identical double letters were not considered satisfactory.  Blaine County should have been BL but was given BA so that BL could be reserved for Butler.

The 93 county numbers are as follows: