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Rejected Illinois Personalized License Plates 

Written By: CarPro | Jan 30, 2025 4:52:09 PM

When it comes to personalizing your license plate, as you'd expect, there are limits. The Illinois Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias' office recently shared it rejected more than 300 vanity and personalized license plate requests in 2024. Of the 60,537 requests for vanity and personalized plates it received last year, 335 were denied because of their "inflammatory or offensive nature" or because they were difficult to read.

The Illinois Secretary of State provided a partial list of some of the rejected plates: HOKTUAH, GYATT, MUNCH, BICHIN, JAGWEED, BADARSE, AXEHOLE, ILLCUTU, HOHOHOE, ABADMF, WEENIE, DUCKOFF, SHIDDED, UGEWANG, and THICCAF.

“Illinoisans consistently display a great deal of creativity when choosing their customized license plates, but the plates that hit the road must meet the standards of good taste and decency,” Giannoulias said. “Our team are well-versed in lecherous language and sneaky swearing, all of which are rejected and placed on our permanent prohibited list.”

According to state law, the Illinois Secretary of State’s Office, which oversees license plate requests, has the authority to reject any application for personalized or vanity plates that “creates a connotation that is offensive to good taste and decency” as stated in Illinois’ Vehicle Code. The office flags combinations of letters and numbers that can be construed as lewd or offensive, including expletives, racial epithets, sex and drug references and allusions to violence.  Being difficult to read can also get a license plate rejected since it could pose problems for law enforcement.

The Secretary of State’s office says it's rejected more than 8,015 license plate combinations overall.

Currently, a total of 811,351 vehicles are registered in Illinois with vanity or personalized license plates to Illinoisans. Of this number, 294,324 are vanity plates and 531,035 of the plates are personalized plates.

Photo Credit: Rudy Wijanarko/Shutterstock.com.