Abbreviation for Million and Million: K & MM Meaning

This post is part of a series sponsored by Old Republic Surety.

If you're confused about the letters of the alphabet that represent thousands and millions, you're not alone. And it's not your fault. In fact, it's one of our most frequently asked questions. Here's why you're confused and what to do about it.

Where does the abbreviation mm come from?

Western civilization has had two powerful influences – the Greek and Roman cultures, and they have often clashed. The Greeks would call the sea god Poseidon, while the Romans called him Neptune. For the Romans, the god of wine would be Bacchus, and for the Greeks, it would be Dionysus. These differences seep into many parts of our culture, including financial analysis.

As a young banker in the mid-80s, I learned what was taught decades earlier, that we abbreviate thousands in our analysis with the letter M. If we want to say millions, we'll show that as MM. For this, we must praise the Romans. M is the Roman numeral for one thousand and MM is meant to convey a thousandth of a thousand – or a million. Continuation; one billion will be shown as $1MMM or one billion.

However, the truth is, if there was an ancient Roman and we asked him to translate our use of Roman numerals, we would find that technically MM means two thousand and MMM means three thousand, so there are errors in this tradition. This reminds me of the old joke of an ancient Roman who walks into a bar, holds up two fingers to the bartender, and says, “Five beers, please.”

K Is Meant To Stand For A Thousand Isn't It?

Wait a minute, you say. I know I've seen jobs posted that pay $50K, and the K is meant to stand for a thousand. And you would be right, for the sake of the Greeks. UK comes from the Greek word kilo which means thousand. The Greeks will also show millions as M, short for Mega. So if we stick with Greek abbreviations, a billion will be denoted as the letter G (Giga). Think of your computer representing bytes of memory as a kilobyte, megabyte, or gigabyte. However, when it comes to billion, we don't actually see G or MMM as an abbreviation for billion. We are more likely to see a headline that says the government has spent $60B on a new project. They spend B billions. What can I say? B for billion is not Greek or Roman; is the first letter of the word billion. So much for consistency.

I saw a news article recently in the Daily Journal of Commerce that read that the city's new post office was to be built for $89M. In the world of accounting and financial analysis, that reads 89 thousand dollars, but we know from the context that the author of the article meant 89 million dollars. Sometimes we have to switch the code and use the context to determine what the author is telling us. I refer to the 2021 Associated Press Stylebook used by most journalists to see how the guide can include a summary of thousands or millions. When writing, the guide advises, only use figures for anything less than a million, but write “a million,” “one billion,” and “three billion” for a number of a million or more, such as 2.4 billion. In addition, the Associated Press recommends abbreviating millions with an “M” and billions with a “B” in titles.

Agents will often see us contacting M as thousands when quoting security bond rates or agent commissions. For example, the standard rate for Class B starts at $25/M for the first $100M; then $15/M for the next $400M; then $10/M for the next $2MM. Those amounts are expressed in thousand and MM means millions. Similarly, we can quote a single and combined contractor's line of authority. That line might be expressed, for example, as a single $5MM total and a $15MM total. If you're an agent or contractor, you've probably seen an email from an underwriter that says something like, “Client needs to increase their bank line to $1MM.” Now you know that years of culture have trained us to show off a million dollars this way.

While the fields of accounting, banking, and finance have adopted the Roman tradition, other fields such as computer systems and the high-tech industry have adopted Greek-influenced abbreviations. As we combine our cultures, it is sometimes difficult to know what someone is trying to convey that expresses thousands or millions in a nutshell. It's an imperfect world.

Still have questions? Are We Here To Help?

At Old Republic Surety we want to bring transparency and clarity in our communications. If you see an abbreviation that is confusing or unclear, please contact your local correspondent or branch for clarification, even if it's just asking a friend. If you would like to learn more about Old Republic Surety and some of our services such as Commerce Surety Bonds, and Contract Bonds, or just want more information, do not hesitate to contact us today.

This blog was originally published on the Old Republic Surety website. Reproduced here with permission.