These personalized license plate requests made the ‘naughty list’
“EATBUTT.” “WOOPASS.” “BONER.”
Don’t expect to see those salty expressions causing double takes on Illinois roads.
They’re among 304 vanity and personalized license plate requests rejected by Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias’ office in 2023, mostly for crude or inflammatory language.
The 304 denied requests comprise less than 1% of the 54,768 submitted this year.
“Illinoisans take great pride in choosing their vanity and personalized plates. But while they’re often clever and frequently humorous, license plates must meet the standards of good taste and decency or they make the naughty list,” Giannoulias said in a video released Wednesday.
While the thought of a “IOWASUX” plate may produce snickers among Hawkeye State detractors, the Illinois Vehicle Code would differ. The law gives the secretary of state authority to nix anything “offensive to good taste and decency.”
A team of agency staff members, well-versed in “lecherous language and sneaky swearing,” reviews all vanity and personalized plate requests.
They watch for “lewd, offensive and even dangerous language,” Giannoulias said. Red flags include “expletives, racial epithets, sex and drug references and allusions to violence.”
Some failed monikers are just difficult to read and could hamper police, officials noted, citing examples like XKXKKXK.
Over the years, the agency has a compiled a list of more than 7,674 declined license plate requests.
Personalized license plates, which are a combination of numbers and letters, cost drivers an extra $47 on top of regular fees. Vanity plates, which consist of only letters, are an additional $94.
The state has 811,351 vehicles registered with vanity or personalized plates. The majority, nearly 66%, are personalized plates and 34% are vanity plates.
For information on the program, go to apps.ilsos.gov/pickaplate.