License plate lingo: Here are the vanity license plates Kentucky rejected last year
Last year, the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet rejected 472 requests for vanity license plates.
For a $43 fee, a standard Kentucky license plate can be personalized with up to six characters. And for a $25 fee, a specialized license plate (like a Friends of Coal license plate) can be personalized with up to five characters.
But under Kentucky law, a personalized license plate will not be issued if:
"The message to be placed on the license plate, if created, discriminates against a race, color, religion, sex, or national origin;
"The plate message is the name of a trademarked or copyrighted product or brand name;
"The plate’s lettering or message is obscene or profane, as determined by the cabinet;"
The plate would "conflict with or duplicate any current license plate."
According to a spreadsheet obtained by The Courier Journal under Kentucky's open records law, of the 472 rejected plates, 159 were rejected because they duplicated alphanumeric combinations on other plates. Thirteen plates were combinations deemed not possible or were tests by clerks or accidental entries.
And 300 of the plates were rejected because they violated the other provisions of the statute, meaning they were profane, discriminatory or contained a trademarked phrase.
Here's a look at some of those plates that were rejected last year. The document provided to The Courier Journal did not provide the exact reason why most plates were rejected, meaning some guess work was involved putting them into categories — and some might fit several categories.
Profane
UK SUK — The Courier Journal was unable to find any similarly-rejected anti-U of L plates.
FAAART
CACA
SEX WRK — Potentially profane. Potentially a political statement.
Many plates had obscene and offensive language we won't be repeating.
Political plates
While an earlier version of the state law governing vanity license plates forbid license plates supporting any specific political belief or religion, a 2022 bill that was signed into law struck down those provisions.
The law, which was in effect for several years, was changed in an effort to avoid litigation over denied license plates. In 2020, the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet was ordered to pay $150,000 after losing a lawsuit over a man wanting to put "IM GOD" on his license plate. The case predated the law, but was highlighted as a reason to amend the law banning religious and political message.
While The Courier Journal did not find any plates tied to religion that were rejected last year, there were a number of requests both before and after the law went into effect in July 2022 tied to political advocacy that were rejected.
Responding to a question as to why plates such as "TRUMP-1" and "MAGA-1" were rejected after the law went into effect, Kentucky Transportation Cabinet office of public affairs executive director Naitore Djigbenou said they were denied because they were trademark infringements.
Djigbenou said denials for "PRO ROE" and "LGBTQ" plates from July 2022 came while the old law barring overtly political messages was still in effect.
While some were profane (or alluded to profanity), others simply stated their support for a political belief, figure or movement:
TRUMP-1
1 FJB
F BIDEN
MAGA45
PRO ROE — This plate was rejected in July 2022, the month after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, the 1973 ruling that provided constitutional protections for abortion rights. The Kentucky Transportation Cabinet told The Courier Journal it was denied under a law in effect at the time that banned plates with overtly political messages.
LGBTQ — Like the "PRO ROE" plate, this request was shot down under Kentucky's old vanity plate law.
Brands
Among the rejected plates were a number with recognizable and trademarked brand names, which are clearly not allowed under Kentucky's license plate statute.
BUCEES — Some folks seemed really excited about the arrival of the iconic highway mega-store chain Buc-ee’s in Kentucky last year (see below).
BUCEE1 — Example 2.
BUCEE2 — Example 3.
TAURUS
LYFT
PRNHUB — We're assuming this one violated obscenity and trademark.
More: Gambling, delta-8, transgender care: These 10 new Kentucky laws are now in effect
Unclear
Some of the rejected plates were headscratchers — seemingly not political, not vulgar and not easily recognizable brand names.
FANDA — According to Urban Dictionary, fanda means “the cutest and hottest person at the same time.” An alternate definition is “people who really like pandas.”
RUSSIE — Russian in French.
HNGMAN — Hangman is a classic, but pretty morbid, children’s game where letters are guessed to complete a word or phrase. But playing hangman to find the missing vowel in HNGMAN, it became clear this could potentially be a more vulgar phrase.
MIDWF — Midwife seems the obvious reading of this, but Urban Dictionary provides a more obscene acronym.
LST TXN — Last Texan?
LINGUS — Lingus, as in Irish national air carrier Aer Lingus, is an Anglicization of the Irish word for fleet. However, if the person wasn’t sharing their love for the Emerald Isle’s airline, there’s a potentially NSFW reading of the plate.
More: UK, U of L, coal? What are Kentucky's most popular specialty license plates?
Reach reporter Josh Wood at jwood@courier-journal.com or @JWoodJourno
This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Here are the personalized license plates Kentucky rejected in 2022
