Motorists won't be seeing these vanity plates in Missouri in 2024

As motorists traverse Missouri roads, deciphering vanity license plates on passing vehicles can be an entertaining hobby for passing the commute time.

While some are easy to understand, like common names or phrases, others can be a bit more obscure. However, there are many requested vanity plates that the Missouri Department of Revenue won’t allow motorists to obtain.

In 2023, there were 494 denied requests for vanity license plates, up from the 471 that were denied in 2022.

The department’s rules require the denial of plates with letters, numbers or some combination of both that are "obscene, profane, patently offensive or contemptuous of a racial or ethnic group, offensive to good taste or decency, or would present an unreasonable danger to the health or safety of the applicant, or other users of streets and highways, or of the public in any location where the vehicle with such a license plate may be found."

More: Missouri rejected almost 500 vanity license plates in 2022. Here's the list

Through an open records request, the News-Leader has once again obtained the full list of denied vanity plates for 2023.

Among them were several requests for vanity plates bearing some version of insults directed towards President Joe Biden, former President Donald Trump, Tesla electric vehicles or the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, known as OPEC.

Some notable vanity plates that motorists won’t be seeing this year include DAHMER, NUDES, H8TER and GOT POO. Many of the others take a trained eye or a knowledge of slang and innuendo to decode, with a vast majority containing sexual overtones.

The full list of rejected license plates can be viewed here externally in a spreadsheet, or scroll down to see it embedded. (Content warning: this list contains explicit and inappropriate language.)

This article originally appeared on Springfield News-Leader: Missouri denied almost 500 vanity plates in 2023. Here's the full list