Personalized Vanity License Plates That Are Banned in Washington

Yeah, we get it, you're hot. But you can't say that on your license plate!

They are called vanity license plates, and if you're a driver, you've probably been behind your share of vehicles trying to read the license plate.

WERE YOU TRYING TO FIGURE OUT WHAT MY PLATE SAID?

When I first started my career in radio I had a license plate that read; JRNLST. I was a proud journalist, but people would always ask me if I was in real estate and if I had the Junior List? Well, that's part of the problem with vanity plates-- they can be misinterpreted.

WHY SOME LICENSE PLATES ARE REJECTED BY WASHINGTON STATE

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Thousands of drivers annually request vanity plates either for fun or to honor someone or something they love, but every year, the Washington State Department of Licensing rejects plenty of requests for a variety of reasons.

Washington state officials reject vanity license plate requests based on these factors:

Sexual or vulgar in nature
Blasphemous
Misleading
Related to illegal substances
Implying ethnic, lifestyle, or gender slurs
Or are contrary to the mission to promote highway safety.
WA State Department of Licensing

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EACH YEAR THE LIST OF REJECTED REQUESTS GROWS

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Some requests for vanity plates do cross the line. State officials rejected 74 requests last year. So far, more than 13,000 requests in Washington state have been banned because of their combinations of letters and numbers.

Note: If your vanity plate request has anything to do with body fluids, like "Barf" or vulgar words in other languages, it will be automatically rejected.

Prime Examples of Banned License Plates in WA State

Gallery Credit: Reesha Cosby

Other rejected requests include references to drinking alcohol, like "Wino." Don't try to get plates that have references to drugs because they'll be rejected too, like "Pothead" and "Potlover", even if it's a request from a person who likes planted pots.

Check the Washington state website here to see if your request has been taken by another driver, or has been rejected by the Department of Licensing.

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