Custom Licence Plates — Seen in the Wild

Was stuck in traffic behind someone with their left turn signal on for no apparent reason and MONI77 plates.

I had an amazing haul this morning and this evening for just driving around town. As to quantity at least; if not quality.

  • UM1WY on a 5-character University of Miami booster plate. “UM one way”? “UM; the one way”? Actually since I cited a UM plate with UM1US last month, I suspect these are just ordinary series plates being issued locally. I just got lucky & saw two that might plausibly be something more interesting.

  • FISION on a standard plate on a generic sedan. Either an angler, a physicist, or a USN nuclear veteran. Or ???

  • SHCC on a Rhode Island standard plate. Google is no help, seemingly wanting to give me every anagram of SHCC except the one I want. “CC” might be country club or community college.

  • PKBL1 on a 5-character USAF veteran plate with a Viet Nam veteran window decal. Since it was parked at the pickle ball courts I bet that’s “Pickle Ball 1”. The war ended when I was 16-1/2. The youngest plausible VN veteran is 70 now. Keep movin’ Dad.

  • GO⎵IMOS on a standard plate on a Jaguar F-1. Means nothing to me.

  • ADELE⎵G on a standard plate on a Tesla. Hi Adele!

  • MWXMW on a 5-character breast cancer booster plate on a Porsche Macan. No clue. I can read the “X” as standing for “by”. So “day by day” or “step by step” or ???. But I can’t come up with anything MW could stand for.

  • LAKRS on a 5-character Miami Heat NBA booster plate on a pickup truck. Wicked burn there duuude!

  • This one almost counts. A Mini Clubman with a standard series FL plate on the back. Ho hum. But on the front was one of those long narrow Euro-style plates with the narrow vertical blue stripe on the left with a UK flag and the word “UK” below, then a white background across the rest of the plate that read BOLLOCKS. Nicely done, Sir.

  • SALM⎵139 on a standard plate on a SUV. Seems a pleasant enough bit of witnessing; certainly less offensive than many.

  • KIK⎵BOL on a standard plate on a BMW X6. “A perfect Soccer Mom wagon for around here; I bet she’s cute” I thought as I approached and passed. The couple driving were easily in their 80s. An odd juxtaposition of plate and driver.

  • GAIL⎵WHO on a NY standard plate on a Mercedes coupe. I didn’t get a look at Gail before she turned, but I like her sense of humor.

  • NTKB on a 5-character surfing booster plate on a Porsche Boxster / 917. No clue. A company name maybe?

  • BFREBU on a standard plate on a off-road hopped-up Jeep. I’d reported it a few months ago. “Be Free; Be You” is the best suggestion from last time.

  • THE⎵DANE on a standard plate on a Lucid sedan. They also had a small bumper sticker in the style of an EU license plate with the Danish flag and the word DENMARK as the plate body.

In all not bad for two forays out on a single day. I probably won’t see any for a week now to make up for this bounty.

Mistakenly posted in the wrong thread a few hours ago, reposting here:

DEZIBBB. I guess “Dezi” is a nickname, but BBB? Does Dezi work for the Better Business Bureau?

BBB is also an acronym for various other things, including “Big Black Beautiful” (used in reference to rubenesque black women).

Friends just got ELN SUX for their Tesla.

There’s also the off-chance that the plate is from a location which allows partial vanity plates and BBB just happens to be random.

I have relatives in Illinois whose son’s nickname is (was?) the first half of their plate and random numbers the second half.

Not a license plate as such, but I stumbled more or less at random on this wiki article and thought the folks in this thread might get a chuckle.

The article is written in the present tense, but the show was produced only from 1987 to 1990, so coming up on 40 years ago.

And here we are playing it again. With a Canadian OP. Coincidence? UBDJUJ :grin: :zany_face:

You be the judge

As someone who lives in Illinois, and has a personalized license plate: Illinois has two types of customized plate:

  • “Personalized,” which is always in the format of either (a) one to five letters, followed by a number from 1-99, or (b) one to six letters, followed by a number from 1-9
  • “Vanity,” which can only be in the format of (a) one to seven letters, with no numbers, or (b) one to three numbers, with no letters

Personalized plates are less expensive than vanity plates, which is likely why the personalized ones are more common here.

What I recall, from when I first got my plates, is that you have an option of picking what you want for the letters, and then not specifying a particular number, but getting the next-highest available number to complete the plate.

Two seen today, but I only remember one:

FENWAY15. That might not be remarkable somewhere else, but this was a NY plate on Long Island, not far from NYC. There were a couple of university stickers, including one from Harvard, so likely did spend time at the park. But why the 15? Could there already be 14 other NY plates with FENWAY?

How do you remember all these? Do you write them down while you drive? I often see many but don’t remember most. Anyway.

I wonder if REDACT works for the government and is quite busy right now. If they need a break they can probably D4NCE. I do not know how many Kilowatts a tesla consumes, is it really 75␣KW as the license plate claims? I guess COACH4L can help with the pick up basketball team. Me, I don’t think I am THE␣JUAN you want to call for any kind of sports advice.

Yes, that last one could be because that is their surname, but I think, they would have use EL instead of THE if that was the case. Of course it could be both.

I also saw a license plate issued to vets that had DSSRET I did not see any Army, Marines, or other logo or reference, and it does seem like DSS was the name of an agency of the Department of Defense before it was renamed. It could be that veteran status and the plate are unrelated though.

//i\\

I have the same questions. I see one or two when I drive, and I repeat them to myself a couple of times, but have totally forgotten them when I get somewhere where I can write them down.

Some I shoot w my phone cam. Most I write down in my phone notes app at the next traffic light. Some I see in parking lots so writing or piccing is easy.

I lose a few that way too. Frustrates me greatly & makes me question advancing senility.

A strong memory for a short list of arbitrary facts for a few minutes followed by expunging them for the next set is an occupational aptitude from my former career.

On a quick drive to the ski area today I saw IAM4PSU, which actually is the handle of someone in Pennsylvania but these were NH plates.

In the ski area parking lot there are plenty of ski related plates, including -SKI-, SKIRCR, P PEAK (the ski area we were at), and several others I can’t remember. And one I’ll dual post to the most interesting car thread, a Smart Fortwo outfitted with a roof box, snow tires, and an aggressive outlook on life. The plate was WEE TWO.

I’ll post it here also (in the car thread, the plate you mentioned here reminded me of one I forgot to post).

The last 2 days’ haul:

  • A⎵REGER on a standard plate on an Audi sedan. Means nothing to me. Ref @icon, spotted in a restaurant parking lot while walking in. Noted down in my phone once seated.

  • XY⎵XY⎵XY on a standard plate on a different Audi sedan. I assume the owners have 3 sons. Spotted at a red light in an adjacent lane. Noted down while waiting for the green.

  • DANIMAL on a standard plate on a pickup. “Dan the animal” I bet. And no great feat of deduction that. Also seen at a red light and promptly noted down.

  • STR⎵SWPR on a standard plate on a hopped up Mustang w loud pipes. Presumably bragging of his street racing cred. Seen dribbling through a parking lot and noted at the next stop sign.

  • BEMYSTIC on a standard plate on an SUV. The decoding is clear even if the intent is mystically magically mysterious.

  • EPIBAH on a standard plate on an Escalade. Perhaps a last name? Or a Hebrew or other regional language word? The folks getting out looked eastern Mediterranean or similar ethnicity.

Had an 90 minute round trip for a doctor’s appointment today and I was hoping I’d get to see at least some interesting plates. Not so much.

FRYS TOY on a small black SUV

WAC on a Army veteran plate on the car who cut me off in a construction zone. I don’t care if you are a veteran, you drive like an idiot…

This afternoon at a light I was behind a big black SUV with DOM8RIX. I was turning, so I didn’t get to find out if the driver was leather-clad.

Stare too long and you’d’ve gotten the lash.

I think given all the electronics WATTAP is an appropriate name for a Tesla. Of course MIZ␣BRITT might think that is not spelled correctly, though she could not complain too much given her on License Plate. I don’t think CLUNK13 was really in that bad shape, but who knows what other car they might be driving. If you really like the outdoors you might really get a 4WBUZZ while driving around in your jeep.

//i\\

Maybe custom? Tennessee plate going into Indiana from Illinois, 009_BOGS.