From bawdy to political, these personalized license plates were blocked by the Wisconsin DOT

DOT reviews every request from drivers to display whatever combination of letters and numbers they want up to seven characters on standard car, truck, farm and motorhome plates.

Drivers can request up to six characters on specialty plates such as Harley-Davidson, Road America and Green Bay Packers themed plates. Motorcyclists can have up to five characters for most plates, and up to four characters for military veteran motorcycle plates.

However, plates can’t display anything DOT’s Special Plates Unit deems to contain “connotations offensive to good taste and decency or which may be misleading,” according to state statute.

Division of Motor Vehicle processors review each request, checking how the request might be interpreted if read backwards, upside down or phonetically, DMV SPU supervisor Monica Worzala said. They also use search engines such as Urban Dictionary.

“Wisconsin DMV has a great team and these unique, personalized plates just add a fun dimension to the day,” she added.

Any plates that processors flag are reviewed by a committee before being rejected. The committee is made up of seven to nine members from various walks of life, Worzala said.

“We also have had the manufacturer point out that a plate may be objectionable,” she added. “With such varied backgrounds, we’re pretty good at catching most inappropriate plate messages.”

Other drivers can also object to plates that have already been issued by reporting them on the DMV website or emailing the DMV directly.

Worzala said real people review every personalized plate request, but drivers can also check before submitting a request to see if their idea has already been taken or deemed misleading or offensive by using DOT’s online personalized plate search.

Among the plates denied between May 1 last year and April 30 of this year, many contained vulgar language the Wisconsin State Journal can’t print. But some of the more lighthearted requests include:

• RDRRAGE
• ST0LN88
• BYTEME1 (as well as -2 and -3)
• COPSLW
• HMMMMMM
• N0TAC0P
• DUK0FF

• Some of the denied requests included political messages, such as WWG1WGA, an acronym for “where we go one, we go all,” a slogan used by members of the online conspiracy group QAnon. Other banned political messages included:
• 46/CRUPT
• BIDN/SKS
• JAN6
• FJB1776
• FJBDN

The SPU also denied several plates containing letters and numbers that could appear the same from a distance or at a glance, such as B8BB8B, X7X7X or 7X7X7X.