Illinois Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias’s Office rejected more than 300 vanity and personalized license plates in 2024.
There were 60,537 requests for vanity and personalized plates. That includes 335 that were denied because of their inflammatory or offensive nature or because they were difficult to read.
The Office flags combinations of letters and numbers that can be construed as lewd or offensive, including expletives, racial epithets, sex and drug references, and allusions to violence. In some cases, like MWMWMWM or OOQQOO, plates were rejected, because they are difficult to read and could pose problems for Law Enforcement.
“Illinoisans consistently display a great deal of creativity when choosing their customized license plates, but the plates that hit the road must meet the standards of good taste and decency,” Giannoulias said. “Our team are well-versed in lecherous language and sneaky swearing, all of which are rejected and placed on our permanent prohibited list.”
According to State law, the Office has the authority to reject any application for personalized or vanity plates that “creates a connotation that is offensive to good taste and decency,” as stated in Illinois’ Vehicle Code.
The Office maintains an ever-growing rejection list, now at more than 8015 license plate combinations.
Currently, a total of 811,351 vehicles are registered with vanity or personalized license plates. Of those, 294,324 are vanity plates and 531,035 of the plates are personalized plates.
Most Illinoisans use the Office’s popular Pick-a-Plate feature on the website apps.ilsos.gov/pickaplate. It allows the applicant to type in different combinations of letters, or letters and numbers, to see if they are available for purchase.