# The plates the Ministry of Transport won't let you see... **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [August 3, 2013, 3:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-plates-the-ministry-of-transport-wont-let-you-see/665226 "2013-08-03T03:47:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2013, 3:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-plates-the-ministry-of-transport-wont-let-you-see/665226/1 "2013-08-03T03:47:48Z")
A nifty [article in the Toronto Star](http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2013/08/02/0utlaw3d_the_vanity_licence_plates_the_ontario_government_wont_let_you_see.html) includes a link to a sortable [list of disallowed plates](http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2013/08/03/platedatabase.html). Most of the ones disallowed seem rather …innocuous. I have to wonder though… how far do they search before they give up? Surely they can’t be searching all 6000 languages on earth to disallow the equivalent of, say, ‘fuck’? ---
**Author:** ![Neverending\_Elbow](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/e274bd/32.png) [@Neverending\_Elbow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Neverending_Elbow)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2013, 12:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-plates-the-ministry-of-transport-wont-let-you-see/665226/2 "2013-08-03T12:52:21Z")
Ha, I wonder whether the person who wanted ‘Rood Boy’ (reson of rejection: Religion) knew that rood means cross, or whether they just thought Rude Boy was taken, and were going for an alternative spelling. I think I’ll be calling Jesus Rood Boy from now on. If I don’t post anything in a month, assume I’ve been smote. ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2013, 1:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-plates-the-ministry-of-transport-wont-let-you-see/665226/3 "2013-08-03T13:01:33Z")
“6R” (#3243) rejected for clarity and readability reasons. That’s pretty far-fetched. I can read it just fine. ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2013, 1:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-plates-the-ministry-of-transport-wont-let-you-see/665226/4 "2013-08-04T01:40:50Z")
I’ve been going through the list a bit, and there are definitely a few head-scratchers. Let’s see…[ul] [li]#456, “BELOKULO”, is Esperanto for “beautiful eye”.[/li][li]There are a whole bunch of plates with the classification of rejection listed as “To Be Determined”. [/li][li]It seems that the Ministry doesn’t like letters being repeated more than around 3 times. [/li][li]It also seems that the Ministry doesn’t like using Q in place of O.[/li][li]#74, “69SHLBY”, is a [year and make of car](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shelby_Mustang), not something sexual. Even I know that.[/li][li]#440, “REDNEK67”. Disallowed because of “Human Rights Discrimination”? That doesn’t even make sense! [/li][li]#189, “NIHILIST”. This is a religious term? Philosophical, maybe. But religious?[/li][\*]#239, “VAFAKULO” looks like another Esperanto one, but doesn’t actually make sense in Esperanto. I suspect it’s an effort to cram [_vafanculo_](http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=vafanculo) onto the plate, in which case the ban makes sense.[/ul] ---
**Author:** ![picker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/picker/32/13969_2.png) [@picker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/picker)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2013, 3:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-plates-the-ministry-of-transport-wont-let-you-see/665226/5 "2013-08-04T03:28:44Z")
Well, I can’t speak to the rest, but the first could be read as Bello Culo, or nice ass. I agree that #239 is probably ‘Va Fanculo’. ---
**Author:** ![3trew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/3/13edae/32.png) [@3trew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/3trew)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2013, 5:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-plates-the-ministry-of-transport-wont-let-you-see/665226/6 "2013-08-04T05:52:03Z")
What I would do is keep the current vetting program and add one where two 14 year old boys read the entries. Anything that made them giggle would be off the table. ---
**Author:** ![aNewLeaf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ac91a4/32.png) [@aNewLeaf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aNewLeaf)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2013, 10:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-plates-the-ministry-of-transport-wont-let-you-see/665226/7 "2013-08-04T10:27:27Z")
> [@Sunspace](#): > > I’ve been going through the list a bit, and there are definitely a few head-scratchers. Let’s see…[list] > > [li]It also seems that the Ministry doesn’t like using Q in place of O.[/li] That actually makes sense, for readability reasons.