Rejected license plates: Virginia DMV shares what personalized plates it will deny

Patrick Hite, Staunton News Leader
·2 min read

Personalized license plates can be a whimsical way to express yourself. For just $10 — in addition to the vehicle registration and any special plate fees — Virginia residents can get a vanity plate. That is inexpensive compared to some neighboring states like North Carolina ($30), Maryland ($50), Kentucky ($25) or Tennessee ($35).

"The majority of requests for personalized plates DMV receives are legitimate and fun," said Ava Adenauer, a spokesperson fo the Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles.

However, she said the DMV will reject applications that contain any combination of characters that in any way carries a connotation which may reasonably be seen by a person viewing the license plate as:

  • Profane, obscene or vulgar in nature

  • Sexually explicit or graphic

  • Excretory-related

  • Used to describe intimate body parts or genitals

  • Used to condone or encourage violence

  • Used to describe illegal activies or illegal substances

The DMV has a personalized plate review committee that meets once a month to review license plate messages that have been reported to the agency and plates that have not been issued that were flagged for review, per Adenauer. If the committee determines that the message was not in compliance with the DMV's guideline when issued, they can recall or cancel the plate.

In 2021 the DMV was busy, rejecting nearly 1,600 plates. They stopped keeping a list after that year but will compile one for a price if you're interested. The News Leader received a list of the rejected plates in 2021. We've listed some of those requests below.

Some may be offensive so consider yourself warned (and some were just too vulgar to list).

Virginia regularly rejects customized license plate ideas for a variety of reasons.
Virginia regularly rejects customized license plate ideas for a variety of reasons.

POLITICAL

  • H8BIDEN

  • BIDNSUX

  • JOESKS

  • HATE45

  • FTRMP

  • DONSUX

  • IH8LIBS

  • FNLIBZ

TOILET HUMOR

  • OFARTS

  • FARTCAR

  • POOPCAR

  • BUTHOL

  • RBUTTS

  • FART3D

  • ITF4RTS

DRUG-RELATED

  • GOAT420

  • COCAIN

  • REEFAH

  • THC420

  • POTGRL

Virginia regularly rejects customized license plate ideas for a variety of reasons.
Virginia regularly rejects customized license plate ideas for a variety of reasons.

HATE SPEECH

  • SUPNAZI

  • KKKKKKK

  • RACIST

  • H8LGBTQ

  • H8LGBT

  • KKKANG

VULGARITY/SEX-RELATED

  • BOOBIEZ

  • SHORTAF

  • GODDAMN

  • SXYMOFO

  • NCEBUT

  • SWMPAZZ

  • AMAZNAF

  • MOAN

COVID

  • PHKCOVD

  • COVDFU

  • FKCVID

VIOLENCE

  • SSHOOTR

  • GUN1UP

  • BLODWAR

  • EZYKIL

  • DEADOA

  • SLUGEM

OTHER

  • VOMIT

  • OHFUDG

  • DAMFAM

  • PIGBUT

  • GODH8SU

  • DMNDOG

  • CRIPES

  • LMAOOOO

  • WTHEEL

  • 5PAZZ

  • M4NURE

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— Patrick Hite is a reporter at The News Leader. Story ideas and tips always welcome. Contact Patrick (he/him/his) at phite@newsleader.com and follow him on Twitter @Patrick_Hite. Subscribe to us at newsleader.com.

This article originally appeared on Staunton News Leader: 'POOPCAR' is just one of the license plates the DMV rejected. What are some others?