You're So Vain

You probably think this plate is about you ...

07734, Gentle Reader! For those of you who don’t know, a vanity plate is a license plate where you choose the numbers and letters, generally to spell something. And for those of you who already knew this, a vanity plate is a license plate where you choose the numbers of letters, generally to spell something. They differ from an affinity plate where you can add support for a cause to your license plate design. For example, I once had an affinity plate that encouraged adoptions.

Most Vanity Plates are either the person’s name or a play on words about the person, their car, or their job. One of my favorites is from Virginia, where they have an affinity plate titled “Kids First”. Someone got the vanity plate “EAT THE”, so their license plate appears to promote cannibalism. No, I’m not a fine young cannibal, nor a fan of them either, but I did find it amusing.

But states do ban some plates for being offensive. “Kill DJT” will get rejected (and maybe earn a visit from a LEO). One of my co-workers, married but childless, wanted “DINK” (Dual Income, No Kids) for his Corvette . The state of Indiana claimed it was an offensive slang term. Maybe “Focus on the Family” found it offensive? 🤔

But going back to that Texas video clip: The State of Texas initially approved a vanity plate, but subsequently told the car owner to remove it. What was so offensive? 370H55V, which is known as a “Beghilos”. For those of you unfamiliar with the term, it is when numbers are turned upside down to resemble letters. And for those of you familiar with the term, well… So if you’re reading this on your phone turn it upside down and ask yourself if you’ve ever called a bad driver this name. For those of you looking at this on a large screen, limber up first.

To research this post on X, I searched 370H55V, and, after scrolling a bit, I found the story. But there are tons of X accounts with that username. I think that is how it got discovered. That, or someone who knew called it in. Some people use it as a password, which cybersecurity experts discourage because hackers look for patterns such as that. They would say that password’s strength is EVVV7.

Maybe I am getting old, or maybe I was raised differently, but I think spelling out insults and obscenities on a license plate is bad taste. I don’t think it makes for a better society. The Oakland Raiders used to write an obscenity on practice footballs to discourage theft, although one of them might have appeared in a game with arch-rivals Denver. I get why, but I don’t approve.

I don’t mind humor, or even advertising your work, although I wouldn’t hire the attorney who was “Isue4U”. Pharmacists struggle to get anything with DRUGS in the vanity plate. But I agree with the state, 370H55V is used as an obscenity, so it is okay to not issue it. They can always have a bumper sticker made up with it. My deciding question on this is: will people chuckle or be offended?

I once had a vanity plate that had my initial and my family’s initials. My original suggestion was rejected as violent, so I changed my wife’s C to a K, and Ohio accepted it! 😀