Ma Bell’s “official” telephone exchange list. (Not all central offices used the official list.)

Ma Bell’s Officially Recommended Exchange Names (Goes to Uneeda Audio)

The following is a list of recommended names for dialable/quotable telephone EXchange names. It comes from AT&T/Bell’s publication “Notes on Nationwide Dialing, 1955”. Many cities with EXchange names had for decades been using names which are not from this list, and they were not necessarily required to change the names. These names were supposed to have been chosen such that pronouncing the name should easily identify the first two significant dialable letters of the word, as well as quoting the two letters themselves wasn’t supposed to be confused with other ‘like-sounding’ letters which were associated with different numbers on the dial. Since this list was Ma Bell’s official recommendation, it covered the entire Bell system. If you do not have a historically accurate exchange name to use for your current telephone number, you should choose one from this list.

To help foster the use of exchange names, send this list everywhere, or print out copies and hand them out on streetcorners!