Thousands of New York vanity plate requests were rejected in 2025 as the DMV flags combinations that are offensive, confusing or misleading.
BUFFALO, N.Y. — The New York State Department of Motor Vehicles receives thousands of requests each year from drivers seeking personalized license plates, but not all are approved.
In the most recent data for 2025, nearly 2,000 personalized plate requests were rejected across the state. Motorists can choose a combination of letters, numbers or symbols to create custom plates, but applications are reviewed to ensure they meet state guidelines and do not include inappropriate or confusing combinations.
In 2024, there were more than 3,000 requests rejected.
So what leads to a rejection?
Personalized plate requests may be denied if they:
Give the appearance of an official plate or mimic special registration classes, such as “POLICE” or “NYS.”Contain obscene, derogatory, or offensive language.Do not include at least one letter.Consists of six numbers followed by a single letter.Include combinations that could be misleading or confusing to law enforcement, such as:Using the letter “O” between numbers to resemble a numeral.Using the letter “I” as the first or last character when the remaining characters are numbers.Using the number zero (0) between letters to form a word.Mixing zeros and the letter “O” to create words or numbers.Using the number one (1) between letters to form words or numbers.
The DMV reviews each submission to ensure plates are clear, appropriate and easy to distinguish on the road. Here’s the list from 2025 of rejected personalized plate requests.