why does Mexican Spanish translate The United States of American "USA" as EEUU ??

Dear kerrykkerr,

"Estados Unidos" is abbreviated as "EEUU" (also: EE. UU.) because in
Spanish the abbreviation for a plural item doubles the letter of the
abbreviation. The same is done, for example, with the abbreviation for
"Fuerzas Armadas" (= Armed Forces), which is "FF. AA.", indicating
that the abbreviation relates to a plural term.
The English language knows this custom too, albeit in a few cases
only. For instance, the abbreviation for "page" in singular is "p.",
while "pages" in plural are abbreviated as "pp.".
Sometimes, however, the abbreviation "EUA" (Estados Unidos de América)
for the United States is indeed used in Spanish, but not often.


Sources:

About.com: Spanish Language - Why EE. UU. for Estados Unidos?
http://spanish.about.com/library/questions/blq-eeuu.htm

Dept. of Modern Foreign Languages, Indiana University - Purdue
University Fort Wayne: Lesson 8 - More on Articles, by Daniel
Eisenberg
http://users.ipfw.edu/jehle/deisenbe/readsp/Lesson_8_-_More_on_articles.htm

Search terms uses:
eeuu estados abbreviation
://www.google.de/search?hl=de&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&newwindow=1&q=eeuu+estados+abbreviation&btnG=Suche
eeuu estados abbreviation plural
://www.google.de/search?hl=de&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&newwindow=1&q=eeuu+estados+abbreviation+plural&btnG=Suche

Hope this answers your question!
Regards,
Scriptor

THANK YOU  !!!!

I should have remembered this from my Spanish class at U. of Iowa.  It
was during the 80's so I guess I was up to no good that day.