Overview
- The Secretary of State’s office said it reviewed about 55,600 vanity and personalized plate requests in 2025 and denied more than 550 for being inflammatory, profane, offensive or too difficult to read.
- Secretary Alexi Giannoulias announced the update in a YouTube video, reading select examples and noting some submissions were too raunchy to say on camera.
- Highlighted rejections included BBL, BDASMOM, BLUBALN, BRICKED, IBPOOPN, ICUP, PRIUSSY, SNDNUDZ, SYBAU and TYPESHT.
- This year’s denials added 543 combinations to the prohibited list, which the office says now contains about 8,558 entries.
- Some rejections address readability and law-enforcement concerns, with previously barred patterns like MWMWMWM and OOQQOO; the office points applicants to its Pick-a-Plate tool, and says roughly 800,000 Illinois vehicles display personalized or vanity plates.