Photo by Dan Dan the Binary Man

Many D.C. residents will tell you there’s a big difference between “Washington” and “D.C.” Mayor Vince Gray seems to agree.

Last week Gray ordered that the D.C. DMV replace “Washington, DC” on license plates with “District of Columbia.” The change—which will take place once the existing stock of license plates is exhausted—will return D.C. plates to what they used to be; license plates had “D.C.” or “District of Columbia” on them from 1907 until 1966, after which “Washington, DC” was used.

According to Pedro Ribeiro, Gray’s spokesman, the justification for the change is simple: it’s the city’s official name. “We are just realigning ourselves with what is the historical name of the District,” he said, pointing out the “District of Columbia” is listed in the Home Rule Charter and is used by city agencies.

The last significant change to the design of the city’s license plate came in 2000, when the D.C. Council approved the addition of “Taxation Without Representation” as a means to protest the longstanding denial of voting rights for the city’s residents. President Obama recently placed those plates on his fleet of presidential memos, responding to demands from D.C. voting rights and councilmembers that he do so.

In 2010, then-Shadow Representative Mike Panetta proposed a similar change to the license plate.