The Root Element The official name of the standard is Codes for the representation of names of countries and their subdivisions – Part 2: Country subdivision code. Conform to ISO 3166-2 Representation of Countries. This list states the country names (official short names in English) in alphabetical order as given in ISO 3166-1 and the corresponding ISO 3166-1-alpha-2 code elements. ISO 3166-1 alpha-3 codes are three-letter country codes defined in ISO 3166-1 Must conform to ISO 5218 - Representation of Human Sexes (0 - Not Known; 1 - Male; 2 - Female; 9 - Not specified)