CA denied thousands of custom license plates this year. See rejects
If you’ve traveled on California roads, you’ve likely noticed more than one clever custom license plate.
For every fun license plate you’ve come across, there are countless others that were rejected and will never see the light of day — for one reason or another.
Whether it’s because the requested numbers elicited a hostile, sexually explicit, or otherwise inappropriate message, or simply because the configuration was too close to an existing one, here are some of the rejected personalized license plates:
Rejected California license plates between 2024 and 2025
So far between 2024 and 2025, the California Department of Motor Vehicles rejected 12,811 custom license plate designs, according to information obtained by the Sacramento Bee through a Freedom of Information Act request. These included references to sex, drinking, drugs and various crimes, as well as swear words and dirty jokes — including at least four iterations of “Hawk Tuah.”
Some plates were rejected because they represent “criminal affiliation or activity.” One example is FELONNN/.
Several were rejected for conveying “a message associated to the characteristics of any person or group of people.”
Examples of these include:
- AXE/ELON
- BISXUAL/
- TRMP/BAD
- LIBS/YUK
- SOCALHO/
- TESLUUT/
(Note: A / represents a half space, according to the DMV.)
Some were rejected for conveying that the vehicle belongs to law enforcement, the DMV said.
Examples include:
- LAPD*K9/
- /CA/ICE/
- *CSI*CA/
- BB*SWAT/
- ARTCL86/
- 911NRSK/
- /*LADP*/
(Note: An * represents a full space, according to the DMV.)
The four iterations of “hawk tuah” — and several other custom plates — were rejected for conveying a “sexual or scatological meaning.”
Examples include:
- HAWK2UH/
- HOCTUAH/
- HAWK2UH/
- HAWKTAA/
Many were rejected for being too similar to an existing license plate.
Examples include:
- QUE33NB/
- ST4RBO7/
- WRM/HOL3
- XL3GACY/
- XPR1NCE/
- XSM1LEY/
- XW1TCHX/
- Y11KES$/
- Y3S*CHF/
- Y3S/PAPI
- YA/MON3Y
You can search through the Sacramento Bee’s database of rejected custom license plates here:
Why do some personalized plates get rejected in California?
California has certain rules restricting what personalized license plates can say. They are:
- No sexual connotations.
- No vulgar terms or terms “of prejudice or hostility.”
- No swear words or terms “considered profane or obscene.”
- No misrepresenting a law enforcement entity.
- No configurations that have been deleted from “regular series license plates.”
- No foreign or slang words or terms, or phonetic spellings or mirror images of words or terms that fall into any of the previous categories.
What is the most common reason custom license plates are rejected?
One might think most personalized license plates are rejected because the message is of a sexual or hostile nature — and while there are indeed plenty of those, it isn’t the most common reason by a long shot.
Here are all the reasons license plates were rejected between 2024 and 2025, according to data from the DMV:
- The requested configuration contains a phrase, code, or term commonly used to represent criminal affiliation or activity: 49
- The requested configuration contains a reference to an illegal act: 19
- The requested configuration contains the number 69, which conveys a message of a sexual nature (Those who requested the configuration for a currently registered 1969 model vehicle have the chance to submit a letter of explanation with the vehicle identification number): 222
- The requested configuration conveys a message associated to the characteristics of any person or group of people. This includes words, terms, or phrases related to race, ethnic or national origin, color, religion, disability, sexual orientation, or gender identity: 68
- The requested configuration conveys that the vehicle belongs to a law enforcement agency or entity: 22
- The requested configuration has a sexual connotation, “or is a term of lust or depravity:” 9
- The requested configuration has a sexual or scatological meaning: 232
- The requested configuration is a foreign word, slang, a phonetic spelling, or mirror image of a word, term, or phrase that is prohibited: 1
- The requested configuration is a non-English word, slang, a phonetic spelling, or mirror image of a word, term, or phrase that is prohibited: 134
- The requested configuration is a swear word, or term considered profane or obscene: 37
- The requested configuration is a word(s) or term(s) that carries a hostile connotation: 2
- The requested configuration is a word(s), or term(s) that carries a hostile meaning: 126
- The requested configuration is an acronym for a phrase that contains profanity: 10
- The requested configuration is an acronym or abbreviation for a phrase or word that contains profanity or obscenity: 501
- The requested configuration is an expletive, or term considered profane or obscene: 563
- The requested configuration misrepresents an association with government or law enforcement: 41
- The requested configuration replicates the appearance of an existing license plate (meaning the requestor likely attempted to substitute a letter for a number or vice versa to create a configuration similar to one that already exists): 9,653
- The requested configuration uses a letter and/or number combination conflicting with an existing license plate series: 658
- The requested configuration uses a letter and/or number combination reserved for a special series plate, which is not available for regular series plates: 464
That most license plates were rejected because the configuration was already in use is not all that surprising, considering California started running out of license plate numbers faster than anticipated, The Sacramento Bee previously reported.
To solve the problem, the state Department of Motor Vehicles decided simply to flip the alphanumeric sequence for license plates around, The Bee reported. So the sequence that had been in place since 1980 — “Numeral Alpha Alpha Alpha Numeral Numeral Numeral” — became “Numeral Numeral Numeral Alpha Alpha Alpha Numeral.”
The final plate in the 1980 sequence — 9ZZZ999 — was expected to be issued in late 2025, two years sooner than originally expected, DMV officials told The Bee. There’s no way to know just yet whether 9ZZZ999 was issued this year, but it wasn’t among those rejected.
Personalized plates are meant to raise money for special causes. Each one costs about $103 initially and $83 to renew, though it depends on which cause you choose. Certain causes cost less.
