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California vanity license plate applications with reasons for rejection (2020)
- ipsum2 1y agoFor those who like doomscrolling, there's a twitter bot for this: https://x.com/ca_dmv_bot2 https://x.com/ca_dmv_bot2. Seems like 88 is automatically denied because of Hitler, not sure what they do about people born in that year.
- stefan_ 1y agoThey are rejecting a lot of numbers.. 13 GANG REFERENCE 14 = GANG NUMBER PULLED FOR 69
- NewJazz 1y agoAlso they rejected PZA TACO (pizza taco) because taco can be slang for pussy. What a job to decide this stuff lol.
- deleted 1y ago[deleted]
- haiku2077 1y agoThere's one approved in there because the car was made in 1988.
- userbinator 1y agoChinese also like to use the digit 8 as it's a lucky number in their culture.
- behnamoh 1y agowhere do we draw the line? I think people should be able to choose any license plate they want, just like they can choose any name they wish. in general, I'm all for removing subjectivity.
- theoreticalmal 1y agoI also don’t know exactly where to draw the line, but I can think of dozens of plates I wouldn’t want my kids reading out in the world
- Barbing 1y agoUncomfortable with K1LLJ3W & don’t (deeply) need to see GOATSE in the neighbor’s driveway every morning. Driving’s a privilege they tell us, makes sense they’d restrict plates based on sensibilities of the average taxpayer. Meanwhile offensive, say, t-shirts might be seen on the sidewalk but perhaps not in around your usual hangouts as a boring, easily offended person (I kid!) (Not married to these opinions, LMK of any obvious misses here)
- twodave 1y agoI feel like if you try and file a police report because your car with one of those plates got vandalized, they'd take their sweet time trying to follow up on it... just saying :)
- greenavocado 1y agoThe reasons given for other rejections are so stupid and far-fetched. Fourteen and eighty eight are Hitler related? Even if true, less than 0.1% of all Americans would recognize such a reference. Others are rejected for AREA CODE reason? WTF? This is extreme government overreach.
- margalabargala 1y ago14 and 88 are widely used as neonazi dog whistles.
- JumpCrisscross 1y ago> Uncomfortable with K1LLJ3W & don’t (deeply) need to see GOATSE in the neighbor’s driveway every morning Counterpoint: I’d give zero shits about their noise complaints or parking preferences going forward, and I suspect my town’s police would be fine with that.
- no_wizard 1y agoShame you can’t get ASSMAN Proctologists everywhere mourn the lost opportunity
- deleted 1y ago[deleted]
- threeseed 1y agoWe also missed out on this gem: GASSMAN, "I'M AN ANESTHESIOLOGIST"
- throwup238 1y ago> Proctologists everywhere mourn the lost opportunity Luckily there are many ways to abbreviate “hemorrhoid” without running afoul of the censors. (IANAL)
- deleted 1y ago[deleted]
- teunispeters 1y agohttps://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/saskatchewan/dave-assman-sgi-vanity-licence-plate-1.5017377 https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/saskatchewan/dave-assman-sgi-...
- rascul 1y agoThe one proctologist I had the displeasure of meeting for reasons I don't wish to discuss had an excellent sense of humor.
- throwup238 1y agoThe Greeks would certainly approve of his humor [1]. Ahem. [1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humorism https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humorism
- burnt-resistor 1y agoIANAL denied too for a proctology lawyer.
- lisper 1y agoI recently got the California TEKWZRD plate :-)
- netsharc 1y agoInteresting that one of them in the CSV was a Russian phrase: https://www.wordhippo.com/what-is/the-meaning-of/russian-word-b536fc3818e53be7c245cdf131950532422f7d80.html https://www.wordhippo.com/what-is/the-meaning-of/russian-wor... , where all the letters are representable using ASCII (B is pronounced V in Russian)
- deleted 1y ago[deleted]
- MrFoof 1y agoNot California, but recently I had "SIXSPD" denied by a state after putting the first known 6-speed manual (all were sold as dual-clutch automatics) in an enthusiast car. I was told that abbreviations weren't allowed. That was the denial reason. Resubmitted it, not denied yet. We'll see if it shows up in another 3-5 weeks or if I get a denial letter followed by an another application refund 4-6 weeks after that.
- grep_name 1y agoIf abbreviations aren't allowed, couldn't you just do "6SPEED"?
- 01HNNWZ0MV43FF 1y agoSome states forbid starting with a number
- hot_topic 1y agoAs someone who lives in Seattle it definitely sounds like six something Seattle police department
- zamadatix 1y agoLike the other commenter mentioned, PD can often be interpreted as Police Department but also "speed" interpretations can be marked as drug references. Tough spot, best of luck!
- deleted 1y ago[deleted]
- andoando 1y agoI filed for "YUUUGE" in the Trump era for my mini cooper, saying it was ironic, referencing the cooper's small size and it got denied it for inappropriate sexual reference.
- toast0 1y agoMy friend, Big Dave, is at least 6'6" and a body builder in addition to being a computer operator. He applied for GR8BIGD, and was denied; but got it on appeal because he's actually great big d(ave).
- danielodievich 1y agoI've had my mini since 2023, license plate MINIKIN, which is a real word meaning something small and precious and dainty. Fits it perfectly. There is a twin in TX that a friend saw, albeit of a different color.
- chmod775 1y ago> OMW2EYL,3,PERSONAL QUOTE,ON MY WAY TO END YOUR LIFE,N How did they figure that one. If that's what it's supposed to mean, that reviewer is good...
- AStonesThrow 1y agoI must commend CA DMV for their wise leverage of UrbanDictionary.com, which is cited over 170 times in that file. And I must wonder about how reliable they consider UD to be, given that UD is 100% user-generated content. Is it possible to tank a perfectly innocent license plate if someone gins up a misleading UD entry? Signed, Don Palabros
- Incipient 1y agoLicence plates are a great example where detection "algorithms" be overzealous in returning false positives over false negatives. As someone had above, if they reject SIXSPD and won't allow it, then just try something else. If your life is materially impacted by by a licence plate, it's 'long hard look' time. (I was going to make a specificity/selectively comment but I don't think that applies here, please correct me otherwise?)
- kylecazar 1y agoSome of the reasons are nuts, like 'xyz is a slur in Tagalog'.
- dymk 1y agoThe person qualified to review with that level of detail must have some really interesting party tricks
- OptionOfT 1y ago> This data was parsed from a set of 458 Excel workbooks that the DMV prepared for someone else's public records request. I received the files as a consolation prize in response to my own related records request, which I was told would cost $2,000 to fulfill otherwise. That's very interesting. It implies that there seemingly is no central place in CA where this data is stored, otherwise there would be 1 source and 1 format. Then again, last time I went to the DMV in CA I filled out paperwork online, only for them to print it and then manually process it. And this was 2.5 years ago.
- Gigachad 1y agoSome of these rejections are so lame. I can’t see any good reasons that “gaymer” or “air$oft” were rejected. Most of them are sex jokes or racist so fair enough, but the rejections seem way too sensitive for the others.
- jsheard 1y agoThis guy was robbed > TUNA FSH > I'M A PROFESSIONAL FISHERMAN AND I FISH FOR TUNA ALL OVER THE WORLD > DMV: I GOOGLED HIM, HE IS AND HE DOES > DENIED
- NewJazz 1y agoThere must be a blanket policy that they have to follow for some words.
- onionisafruit 1y agoor they’re saving it for a frank zappa fan
- yosito 1y agoSome of these are ridiculous. QVO ESE was denied because there's a gang that starts with the letter S. "Que hubo ese?" in Spanish is like saying "What's up dude?", it's not even as gang related as "What's up g?".
- zamadatix 1y agoOne of the comments on a gay related ones contained the note "my instructions are to run any gay or lesbian plate by the review board, but as long as its positive it is acceptable". Sounds like more work to deal with those ones, even if it seems alright, which could contribute to the denials.
- robhlt 1y ago"GAYMUR" was actually granted, it has a "Y" in the last column. Everything in the csv was just sent for extra review, not all of them were rejected.
- starkparker 1y agoReminds me of a bot, formerly of Twitter and now on Bluesky, that lists custom Oregon plates as they're registered or expired and made available: https://bsky.app/profile/plat.es https://bsky.app/profile/plat.es
- josephcsible 1y agoTalk about power tripping bureaucrats. Just glancing at a few: > H84BY4Z,7,"I HATE 4X4 VEHICLES. SATIRE, AS I WILL BE PUTTING THIS PLATE ON A 4 WHEEL DRIVE TRUCK",HATE,N > SAABNUT,1,CRAZZY ABOUT SAAB BRAND CARS,SAAB NUT.. SAAB IS A CAR NUT CAN BE SEXUAL OR CAN MEAN CRAZY,N > PZA TACO,1,MY TWO FAVORITE THINGS PIZZA AND TACOS,TACO,N > AIRS$FT,2,AIRSOFT SPORT WE LOVE,AIRSOFT SHOOTING,N > 3&14 PI,4,THE FIRST 3 DIGITS OF PI,PIE 14 GANG REFERENCE,N > CHRG4PS,1,CHARGE FOR PEACE,LOOKS LIKE CHARGE FOR PS… NOT SURE WHAT PS MEANS,N > PINK 64,1,THE CAR IS A 1964 VW BUG,PINK=VAGINA. HAS A 64 VW ON ANI,N > KIKI$77,1,NAME AND SOFTBALL NUMBER,"kiki=Tagalog, means vagina",N > MFC,3,"'MFC' IS AN ABBREVIATION FOR 'MOTHERWELL FOOTBALL CLUB' A PREMIERE LEAGUE SOCCER TEAM LOCATED IN MY HOMETOWN OF MOTHERWELL, SCOTLAND.",MFC motherfuck? Motherwell IS a Scottish Football Club,N > CAT TAX,1,"I WANT A LICENSE PLATE WITH ""CAT"" ON IT, AND I FIGURED A CUSTOM PLATE CAUSES ME TO PAY MORE IN TAXES... SO I AM PAYING THE CAT TAX.",CAT TAX CAT SLANG FOR VAGINA,N Do any of those rejections seem reasonable to anyone else? They all seem insane to me.
- alexjmu 1y agoEh, they're consistent at least. I've seen many rejections for "HATE", any word that could be considered a sexual euphemism (TACO), anything that could be construed as a gang reference, and often anything that the reviewer doesn't understand that is not explained by the submission ("NOT SURE WHAT PS MEANS"). The latter feels paranoid, but it's probably justified.
- AnnikaL 1y agoThe submission does explain PS, though! They said it means "peace" as in "charge for peace".
- 01HNNWZ0MV43FF 1y agoMFC STANDS FOR MICROSOFT FOUNDATION CLASSES, REJECTED, N
- skeaker 1y agoA hard word blacklist isn't really outlandish to me even if it generates lots of false positives. Beats lots of false negatives.
- silisili 1y ago> DAVES88,2,DAVES 1988 TOYOTA,88 HITLER REFRENCE,N Don't get me wrong, I know some weird parts of the internet use 88 that way. But c'mon, this is pretty weak, I'd venture 95% of people (if not more) don't even know that reference. Is everyone born in 1988 prevented from using their birth year these days, too?
- JumpCrisscross 1y ago…dare I ask what the 88 means?
- gnabgib 1y agoH is the 8th letter of the alphabet.. the initials of a former greeting.
- cheschire 1y agoIt is also coincidentally the prefix for all license plates in the city of/region around Hamburg, as HH stands for Hansestadt Hamburg.
- _blk 1y agoHaha, good one. So in California you can say whatever neonazi shizz you like and buy Hitler's books because of the 1st ammendent but you can't have an 88 on your state issued vanity license plate (what about randomly issued ones?) But in Germany where all that is forbidden by law you have the short form of the hitler salute on a whole city's plates. Looks like no one died from those in German so can we just reinstate the 1st on license plates California and save a few millions in review costs? It's not like things were fast at the DMV anyways..
- nkurz 1y agoMost of the time it means that they are putting the plate on a 1988 vehicle or that they were born in 1988. But it's being denied because H is the 8th letter of the alphabet, and thus 88 might be construed as HH, which might be construed as Heil Hitler: https://www.adl.org/resources/hate-symbol/88 https://www.adl.org/resources/hate-symbol/88. In some rare cases it might even be intended to have this meaning.
- savrajsingh 1y agoSEVAK13,,"SEVAK = SERVANT, 13 = THERA = YOUR, IN PUNJABI THIS MEANS ""GOD, I AM YOUR SERVANT.""","13, GANG REFERENCE",N Yes, Sevak is servant and the number 13 in Punjabi is "tera" which also means "yours". Unfortunately in California the number 13 is a GANG REFERENCE. lol. Probably a free-speech argument to be made here?
- throwatgft676 1y ago[flagged]
- deleted 1y ago[deleted]
- runlevel1 1y agoSame data in a Google Sheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/18IUVU9Q4uN_lxqNd5AsNvsdT8V3L4IUA2Nz_VWA7Lzs/edit?usp=sharing https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/18IUVU9Q4uN_lxqNd5AsN... Note: I normalized the data a bit and I think I translated some of the abbreviations and reasons for rejection. It also got reordered at some point.
- stackedinserter 1y agoI would be happy to talk to the person that does/did this stupid job.
- burnt-resistor 1y agoI don't understand why REDROCK was so offensive. There's a coffee shop in Mountain View with that name.
- robhlt 1y agoThat row has a "Y" in the last column so it was actually granted after the extra review. Most entries in the csv were rejected, but a few like this one were eventually allowed it looks like.
- burnt-resistor 1y agoThat data is hard to consume. It needs a website grid browser to annotate it.
- davchana 1y agoThe latest version of this request form in DMV CA doesn't even ask for meaning of the plate/phrase now.
- everybodyknows 1y agoNotable by omission, as seen in the wild some decades ago, on a VW "Rabbit": FKSLK12
- deleted 1y ago[deleted]
- Kivern7 1y ago[dead]
- Hizonner 1y agoIf they don't feel like they can just give anybody any plate they ask for (which indeed they probably shouldn't do), then they shouldn't be issuing custom plates at all. Stuff like this conditions people to think it's appropriate for governments to be arbiters of taste. In an essentially irrelevant anecdote, I do always wonder how somebody a few blocks from me (not in California) managed to get "HOTWIFE".
- eru 1y ago> If they don't feel like they can just give anybody any plate they ask for (which indeed they probably shouldn't do), then they shouldn't be issuing custom plates at all. Stuff like this conditions people to think it's appropriate for governments to be arbiters of taste. I want to agree, but the messy compromise they arrived at in practice seems to work ok enough.