A Plate to Call One’s Own

Ah, is there anything that says CAL4NIA quite like a personalized license plate?

Since the 1970s, more than 2 million personalized plates have been bolted to cars in the Freeway State and now, thanks to the Internet, it has never been easier to advertise your ego on your bumper.

Check out https://plates.ca.gov/search/ for a nifty database that lets you try out different seven-character plate possibilities and, within moments, either shows you the selected motto on a plate or breaks the news that your unique and personal message is already riding around on someone else’s car.

The first one we checked, of course, was “RDSCHLR” and we were stunned and oddly sad to find it available. How could such a fine tag be overlooked? We’ll pass though--besides the $50 fee for personalized plates, revealing our identity on the roadways might invite speeding tickets and encounters with disgruntled subscribers.

Not only can you scan the database for a plate motto you want, you can order it immediately with the click of a mouse. You can also search through existing plates for the most popular phrases.

The exercise is fascinating, useless and yet another example of how the Internet can help you avoid doing work. In other words, we heartily recommend it.

What did we learn during our own extensive research? Well, there are 437 plates with “SEXY” in them (including “OCSEXY”), 904 with “FAST” (such as “2FAST4U”) and a whopping 971 with “SURF” (Sorry dude, “OCSURF” and “SURFOC” are taken, along with the way-cool “SURFCTY”).

We weren’t surprised to see that “I (Heart) OC,” “ORNGECO” and even “ORNGXTC” were all taken, but how could “NWPRT” still be up for grabs with all those BMWs cruising down Newport Coast Drive?

For freeway fans, “ELTOROY” is waiting for South County folks who want to brag about surviving the commuter confluence and, in a big surprise, “OCCRUSH” also remains unclaimed. No one in Orange County has stepped forward to grab “SUBURB,” either, but why would they?

On the local political front, “NIXON” appears in 10 plates (including the wishful and eerie “NIXON96” campaign plug), but, alas, no one apparently feels like investing in a “CITRON” plate.

In the area of self-esteem, “LOSER” is taken but, in a shocker, “IRULE” remains available. Perhaps Californians aren’t egoists after all. On the broader issue of taste, “YUCK” and “YUM” have been gobbled up, along with “SPICY” and “SWEET.”

We know there’s a lot of pressure when it comes to picking a personalized plate. After all, thousands and thousands of people will instantly judge you by the phrase you select.

So, for those of you struggling to find a clever tag, we offer perhaps the the perfect choice: “CLVRTAG” is ready and waiting.

FULL PLATE: Readers Robert and Sara Bergstrom must spend a LOT of time stuck in traffic on the Riverside Freeway. The couple have made a hobby of sorts out of studying the license plates around them. And they’ve studied them enough to come up with this eye-opening question:

“We are curious to know why we can’t find license plates starting with the number 3 followed by a three letter sequence starting with the letters I, Q, Y or Z. Our theory is that these letters are in use, but they were sent to DMV offices in Northern California. Can you shed any light on this?”

Not even a little. So we called Evan Nossoff, a spokesman for the Department of Motor Vehicles in Sacramento. He explained that the use of the letters I and Q (along with O) are limited on plates because they look like ones and zeros.

In recent years, the standard California plate has a single digit as the first character followed by three letters and then three more digits. Among the letters in the middle, I, Q and O are never used in the first or third position. Got it? So you could have 3VQV737 as a plate, but not 3IVQ737.

Exciting stuff, no? But wait, there’s more.

Nossoff went on to tell us that all new California license plates started with the number 3 until the state recently switched to plates that honor the California sesquicentennial (they now start with the number 4 and, in some areas, have even begun with the 5 sequence).

And, Nossoff said, the Bergstroms are right--the plate that started with 3 had gone through much of the alphabet sequence (meaning the sequence of plate numbers started with 3A, 3B, 3C, etc) but, at the switch over, had only reached 3X.

So, as the Bergstroms suspected, there are no plates starting with 3Y and 3Z (the one exception would be some commercial vehicle plates that do have 3Y and 3Z, but let’s not quibble).

Why change over with some plates left? “Because we felt like it,” Nossoff told us, flashing that famous DMV sense of humor. Another reason, he added, was to start fresh with the new plates. The move didn’t escape the scrutiny of plate-watchers like the Bergstroms.

“The scariest thing is this is the fifth call we’ve gotten on this,” Nossoff said. “We have 26 million customers and some of them have a lot of free time, I guess.”

LEFTOVER PLATE: One more tidbit on license plates: Beyond clever messages, many Californians are expressing themselves by buying specialty plates that honor and publicize a range of interests, from firefighters to Olympians to UCLA.

The plate showing the snowy, majestic peaks of Yosemite National Park is the bestseller right now, with 51,000 plates on the road, and the sales have pumped $9 million into the park’s restoration fund, according to Nossoff.

The second most popular plate shows a row of palm trees and the sun setting into a serene ocean--an image that has raised $3.8 million for the California Arts Council and local arts projects.

The newest plate is the Whale Tail, which shows the distinctive tail fin of a diving behemoth and had sold a brisk 13,000 plates since the end of last year, Nossoff said.

The money from that model goes to the California Coastal Commission’s fund for beach maintenance and education programs.

For information on any of these plates, you can check the Internet address above, or call or visit your local DMV offices.

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The Roads Scholar wants to hear your insights, stories and questions about traffic, the commuting experience and Orange County transportation issues. You can call him at (714) 966-5724, send e-mail to geoff.boucher@latimes.com or mail letters to him at The Times Orange County, P.O. Box 2008, Costa Mesa, CA, 92626. Please include your full name, hometown and phone number.

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Priced Tags

Californians have embraced speciality license plates, which cost between $30 and $90, plus renewal fees. Proceeds from many of plates help various causes, such as arts and environmental efforts. Some of the more popular plates and the number on the road:

Yosemite: 51,000

Arts: 46,000

Kids: 33,000

Whale: 13,000

Tahoe: 11,000

Firefighters: 10,000

UCLA: 2,500

Source: Department of Motor Vehices