Thanks to Fox31, we found out that:
The Colorado Division of Motor Vehicles rejected more than 23,000 vanity license plate requests in 2021.
A Colorado Open Records Request revealed 1,582 pages of license plates that were determined to be offensive or were omitted for not reaching requirements. Here are just a fraction of the plates that ended up in the reject pile for Colorado:
We combed through the data and listed some of the requests that weren’t vulgar or contained foul language.
Some of the rejected plates were Colorado cities, attractions and references:
3O3
ASPN
DIASCAM
FANT
FOCO
VAIL
Others were food and drink related:
BEER
BYOB
CAFE
FISH
FOOD
GODONUT
GOTBEER
LIME
MDEW
OVEN
PEAR
PORK
REDMEAT
SOUP
TABASC0
TABASCO
TACO
TBASC0
TBASCO
WINE
WINO
Other rejected plates that made the list were pop culture references:
BALLER
BOSS
BOYTOY
DAWG
GANGSTA
KOOL
LOLZ
WACK
TOOL
Some of the rejected plates were just strange:
DOGPOOP
POOP
YEAHBUT
ACNE
XBOX
Here are some of the other plates that were rejected in Colorado in 2021:
BAMA
BARK
BEAR
BLOKCHN
BOBA
BEAM
BORN
BTOWNOG
BUMR
BURN
CAMO
CLUE
D8-B8
DAMFAST
DEBT
DEER
DEFY
ENVY
EWWW
FAKE
FILM
FOOT
GLEE
GLOW
GLUE
GOAL
GOOD
H8TE
HATE2BU
HE11CAT
HI2U
HOWL
HUGS
ICEY
IDEA
IH8FORD
IIII
IKON
JAIL
LADY
LAME
LATE
LOVE
MEOW
MMMM
MOON
MYGIRL
NASA
NERD
NEWS
NICE
NIKE
NOPE
NOSE
OATH
OKST
OOOH
OVER
PACKING
PAIN
PARK
PAWN
PEAT
PLAN
PLAY
PLUG
PLUS
POEM
POET
POLE
PONY
PRRRRRR
PUFF
QTEA
QUAD
RARE
RASH
RATE
RIDE
RIOT
ROAM
ROAR
RUDE
RUDEBOY
SAFE
SAGE
SAID
SAUCED
SCROOG
SEAT
SEED
SEND
SHIP
SHOP
SHOO
ShortBus
SICK
SLAP
SLAY
SLIP
SMOG
SNOT
SNOW
SNOWSHOE
SOLD
SOLO
SOUL
STAR
STEP
STEER
SUGA
TALK
TEST
THEBOMB
TOAD
UPPP
WAGE
WALK
WALL
WARN
WILD
WOLF
WORM
XTREMST
YADA
YALE
YAWN
YEAR
YELL
YESS
YOGA
ZEAL
ZIG
ZONE
ZZZZ
Here are the common reasons for denied applications, according to the Colorado DMV:
Offensive to the general public
Misleading
Duplicate Plate
Conflicts will regular issued plate configurations
Not an allowable combination
Plate Issued to Someone Else
Too Many Characters (up to 6 for Motorcycle, up to 7 all others)
Special symbols (!, #, $, %, * etc…) not allowed
Minimum of five numbers required on all numeric plates
Applicant does not have a valid Colorado address
Zero’s are not allowed
Application Not Signed*
Incomplete Application*
Application requested a plate type that required a certificate, but no certificate supplied*
Vehicle does not meet the qualifications for the plate type selected*
A State Registrations Clerk may contact you via phone to attempt
to correct the application
Do you want to try to get your own personalized license plate? You can find the application here.