Most residents who live in close proximity to the U Street/African-American Civil War Memorial/Cardozo Metro station rarely refer to the station by its full name, using “U Street” as a shortened moniker. In about a year, that nickname will be okay, as far as WMATA is concerned.

The Washington Examiner reported recently that in June 2012, 11 stations will officially get nicknames. See the stations below, with the abridged name to the right.

Woodley Park-Zoo/Adams Morgan ­ Woodley Park 
New York Ave-Florida Ave-Gallaudet U ­ New York Avenue 
Mt. Vernon Sq/7th St-Convention Center ­ Mount Vernon Square 
Archives-Navy Memorial-Penn Quarter ­ Archives 
West Falls Church-VT/UVA ­ West Falls Church 
U Street/African-Amer Civil War Memorial/Cardozo ­ U Street 
Vienna/Fairfax-GMU ­ Vienna 
Georgia Ave-Petworth ­ Georgia Ave 
Grosvenor-Strathmore ­ Grosvenor 
Dunn Loring-Merrifield ­ Dunn Loring 
Rhode Island Ave-Brentwood ­ Rhode Island Ave

So what does this name shortening imply? Well, nothing really. The nickname idea is an effort to shorten the rather long, unwieldy formal station names that no one really uses. The Examiner reports that the nicknames are officially going into effect when the Yellow and Blue line service re-aligns next year.