# Do you know your driver's license number? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [June 4, 2001, 6:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-your-drivers-license-number/67494 "2001-06-04T06:25:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![rackensack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e5b9ba/32.png) [@rackensack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rackensack)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2001, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-your-drivers-license-number/67494/21 "2001-06-04T21:24:47Z")
I not only know my current GA DL number, but my old Arkansas number from fifteen years ago as well. I’ve been fortunate in having numbers that are really easy to remember. The GA number can be broken down into a three digit string, a two digit string, and then the first string again incremented by one. My Arkansas number was of the form ABCD-CDBA, so that it was even easier to recall. I still use one of those four-digit sequences as my ATM PIN, since it’s permanently burned into my brain but exists nowhere on any document in my possession, so it’s extremely unlikely to be correctly guessed by anyone who stole or found my card. ---
**Author:** ![StephenG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/7feea3/32.png) [@StephenG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StephenG)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2001, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-your-drivers-license-number/67494/22 "2001-06-04T22:22:45Z")
I know my license plate number (4 numbers, two letters (and almost my intials at that) so it’s not to hard), and I know my SSN. Both come in handy, for paperwork, motel registration, parkinglots, and the like. I know my student ID number, since I need that _constantly_. I don’t know my Massachusetts driver’s license number – it’s different from my SSN, and patternless. I rarely need it on checks and I don’t need to know the number when pulled over – I just give them my license. I don’t know the number on my … um, friend’s … Ontario license, although I do know my^H^H his birthday, address, height, etc. The last five numbers are his birthday, and I believe the numbers before that have a pattern, but I can’t recall it. In short, if I need the number, I know it. If I don’t need it, I don’t bother. ---
**Author:** ![Lexicon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ac8455/32.png) [@Lexicon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lexicon)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2001, 12:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-your-drivers-license-number/67494/23 "2001-06-05T00:13:01Z")
> [@](#): > > Do you know your driver’s license number? Yeah. I know yours, too, so watch your ass! (Insert totally unnecessary “Just Kidding” here.) ---
**Author:** ![Rilchiam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/2bfe46/32.png) [@Rilchiam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rilchiam)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2001, 3:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-your-drivers-license-number/67494/24 "2001-06-05T03:36:34Z")
Thank you all. This is about what I thought. Although I can see his reasons for asking that. First, because it’s not so much **what** they answer as **how** : if they rattle it off as if they did indeed memorize it strictly for this purpose, they probably did. Second, because if they’re around the 21-year mark, especially if they’re clearly college students, they probably haven’t taken on the kind of adult responsibilities that require knowing one’s DL#. To them, the really important ID would be their student ID. I also used to know a former bartender who said that if a young person came in grinning like a barracuda, it was most likely that they were underage, and smiling because they were nervous. Only other possiblities were that they were high, in which case they also wouldn’t get served, or it was their 21st birthday on the nose. He said, “If you’ve **just** turned 21, have some other form of ID as well.” And I read an anecdote about another bouncer who asked people their zodiac sign. “Thanks for playing; I’ll keep this!” hazel-rah: Funny! ---
**Author:** ![Badtz\_Maru](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e36b37/32.png) [@Badtz\_Maru](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Badtz_Maru)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2001, 6:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-your-drivers-license-number/67494/25 "2001-06-05T06:44:02Z")
I know my drivers license number, I’ve had to use it enough that it got stuck in my head. I know my old license plate number but not my new one. ---
**Author:** ![Sledman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/839c29/32.png) [@Sledman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sledman)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2001, 1:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-your-drivers-license-number/67494/26 "2001-06-05T13:06:06Z")
I’ll give an affirmative on the DL# also. I’ve known it since I was 16 because it was double gold. It allowed: 1.) Freedom. 2.) I could rent VCR’s and movies from the local grocery store. Jackpot. (No cable till college and no vcr in the house until I was 17) Just needed to put that little 14 digit number on the form and you were off and running. Plate number… don’t know it for this vehicle that I have had for 4 years… Can name several previous plates though. SS# – Can’t graduate college w/o memorizing that one. Anniversary number – I hereby nominate myself and all others who got married in the year 2000 as the most ingenious married fools in the world. “Hey, so it’s your anniversary. How long have you been married?” “What year is it?” “2006” “6 years” Mnemonic Schmnemonic!!! ---
**Author:** ![Cyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a88e4f/32.png) [@Cyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cyn)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2001, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-your-drivers-license-number/67494/27 "2001-06-05T17:54:15Z")
Yes, I know my California DL#, my SS#, my passport#, I know my library card # \*\* IF \*\* I can type it out on a keypad, otherwise it looks and sounds wrong to me----too many numbers. Most of my frineds’ phone numbers are committed to “muscle memory”, too. ---
**Author:** ![hazel-rah](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/73ab20/32.png) [@hazel-rah](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hazel-rah)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2001, 10:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-your-drivers-license-number/67494/28 "2001-06-05T22:08:57Z")
> [@](#): > > Most of my frineds’ phone numbers are committed to “muscle memory”, too. That reminds of a few years ago, back when the phone in my apartment was an old rotary dialer. People would be over and ask to use the phone, and then get ticked off because they couldn’t remember the number they were trying to dial, as they’d only ever done it on a keypad. -fh ---
**Author:** ![holdenmagroin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/5daacb/32.png) [@holdenmagroin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/holdenmagroin)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2001, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-your-drivers-license-number/67494/29 "2001-06-05T22:16:05Z")
I know mine because I used to cash my pay check at a liquor store from ages 15-18 or so, and I had to write it on the check every time. ---
**Author:** ![AETBOND417](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/47e85d/32.png) [@AETBOND417](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AETBOND417)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2001, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-your-drivers-license-number/67494/30 "2001-06-05T23:21:51Z")
Heck, I don’t even know my SS#. I know the first four characters in my license, but that’s all. Strange coincidence, as I should have been able to recall both numbers for the W4 and other forms I filled out at work today. ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2001, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-your-drivers-license-number/67494/31 "2001-06-05T23:41:08Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Jman \* > \*\*I do not know my DL#, but I don’t exactly look at my license much. I don’t write checks (use the debit card), and I’ve never been ticketed, so I’ve never needed it for a traffic violation. I know my license plate #, and all my family and friend’s plates. I don’t understand how you can not know what your LP# is…you see it every single time you go to your car! Knowing it makes it a lot easier if you have a common car and can differentiate yours from the other 3 identical cars in the parking lot by looking at the plate. Plus, how else would you know who’s car left their lights on? > > Jman \*\* Alright you, no making fun of the numerically impaired. Not only do I not know my LP number, but I can barely remember my phone number and address (I usually have to check before I write my address on any forms). I blame it on being a visual learner; I can recognize an actor if I see part of their face in a Star Trek get-up, or recognize someone I saw on a bus two times 10 years ago, but I can’t tell you the number of the street I live on. ---
**Author:** ![Cervaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cervaise/32/16693_2.png) [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2001, 11:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-your-drivers-license-number/67494/32 "2001-06-05T23:44:29Z")
Similar to what **amarinth** said, here in Washington State, your driver’s license is built from part of your last name, your first and middle initials, and a couple of extra numbers and letters. Incredibly easy to remember. So, yeah, I’ve got it committed to memory, but I consider it a mental feat approximately equal to remembering which hole to stick the food in. ---
**Author:** ![GingerOfTheNorth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/cdc98d/32.png) [@GingerOfTheNorth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GingerOfTheNorth)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2001, 12:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-your-drivers-license-number/67494/33 "2001-06-06T00:07:26Z")
Oddly enough, we had a discussion about this today at work. I know my Alberta drivers’ license number, as well as those from when I lived in the NWT and Ontario. I also know: my social insurance number (same as your SSN) chequing account number savings account number Visa number health care number for NWT and Alberta for myself and my son my phone numbers from 1975 to the present - and I’ve moved a lot license plates from NWT, Alberta, Ontario UPC stencilled on the back of my neck… [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-your-drivers-license-number/67494.md?page=1)