Washington turned down 170 custom license plates in 2025. See the rejects

If you’ve ever noticed a custom license plate while driving in Washington state, you might have felt inspired.

Seeing a particularly creative plate can leave you itching to order your own.

Washington state gives drivers the option of personalizing their license plates with custom messages and special designs.

However, the state has certain rules restricting what those personalized plates can say.

So far in 2025, Washington State Department of Licensing has denied more than 170 requests for personalized license plates for a variety of reasons.

Between Jan. 1 and Aug. 31, the DOL issued a total of 971,638 license plates — including 3,037 customized plates, the agency said.

Here’s what you need to know:

Who can get a custom license plate in Washington state?

A standard Washington state license plate features seven characters over a white background with a light blue silhouette of Mount Rainier.

Anyone can request a custom license plate with one to seven characters for standard-size plates, according to the Washington State Department of Licensing.

Smaller plates, such as those for motorcycles and small trailers, can have one to six characters, the state agency said.

You can use letters, numbers, hyphens and spaces to make a personal statement.

However, “unusual characters” such as a hashtag, ampersand or exclamation mark aren’t allowed, the state Licensing Department said.

How do I apply for a customized license plate in Washington?

Once you’ve decided what customization you’d like, you need to decide which background you’ll use.

You can use the standard mountainscape license plate, or one of the special designs available. For instance, you can show off your college pride, honor military service or celebrate Washington’s wildlife.

Some of those special designs do not allow customization, so refer to the Washington Administrative Code for further guidance.

To save time and application fees, you can use the Washington State Department of License’s online portal to find out in advance if your customization is allowed — and check whether it’s already taken.

Then you’ll need to fill out a specialty license plate application and mail it in with your payment.

How much do license plates cost in Washington state?

If your car has changed ownership, you need to buy new plates, unless you’re removing a dead spouse from the title or received the vehicle from a family member as a gift or from a trust. These cost $100 for a set.

If your plates have been lost, damaged or stolen, you can get replacements for $77.25 for standard vehicles and trucks, $83.25 for motorhomes, $45.25 for trailers and $27.25 for motorcycles.

Personalized plates cost more.

If you opt for a standard background, your custom license plate could cost $169.25 for cars, pickup trucks and vans or $87.25 to $168.50 for motorcycles, trailers and other vehicles.

If you want a special design, the fee goes up to $209.25 for a regular passenger vehicle, or $127.25 to $208.50 for other vehicles.

The Keep Kids Safe license plate comes with an additional $5 fee for any vehicle.

You’ll have to pay annual renewal fees for customized plates, with costs varying by design.

Why do personalized plates get rejected in Washington state?

According to Washington’s Administrative Code, the state Department of Licensing is allowed to deny applications for personalized license plates for a handful of reasons.

These include license plate designs that are considered:

• Offensive to “good taste and decency”
• Misleading
• Vulgar, profane or sexually suggestive
• A racial, ethnic, lifestyle or gender slur
• Related to intoxicating substances, illegal activities
• Derogatory
• Slanderous
• Contrary to highway safety goals

The Washington State Department of Licensing has a list of more than 14,000 letter and number combinations that cannot be issued, based on the department’s personalized plate standards.

The so-called “Do Not Issue list” includes pre-determined denials as well as requests deemed unacceptable.

However, the list isn’t exhaustive. If you request a license plate customization that isn’t on the list, state officials could still decide it’s inappropriate or otherwise unacceptable to be issued.

So far in 2025, rejected Washington state license plate designs include references to sex, drinking, drugs and various crimes, as well as swear words and dirty jokes.

Can I use swear words on my Washington license plate?

Even if you leave out letters or replace letters with numbers, Washington state rejects any requests for customized license plates including swear words.

You can’t use rhymes or replacement letters for curse words in your custom design.

Acronyms referencing bad language aren’t allowed either.

Swear-inspired custom license plates rejected by Washington state in 2025 include:

• YOHOE
• DADSHOE
• HI5AF
• H 5 AF
• DUCCOFF
• DUCKOFF
• PVSYWGN
• FATBSTD
• FAT85TD

So far in 2025, the state agency has denied requests for seven different license plates using profanity to express political stances against Tesla founder Elon Musk, including FKELON and FC E1ON.

What about dirty jokes or sexual innuendo?

Whether or not they include swear words, dirty jokes aren’t allowed on personalized license plates, Washington state says.

That includes any Internet trends or memes. For example, the DOL has rejected seven custom license plates referencing the so-called “Hawk Tuah girl” so far this year.

Customization requests that state officials considered were too dirty to approve included:

• T BUTT
• BOINKY
• SMOLLPP
• ITS HUGE
• D1LF
• DILF
• SPANK5
• SPANKER
• DONG333
• 69 SEC
• DUCKME

Are drinking or drug references OK on Washington license plates?

No references to drinking or drugs are allowed on custom license plates in Washington state.

So far this year, the DOL has turned down license plate requests with seven variations of “brewski” — including BR3W5K1.

Other rejected Washington license plates referencing drugs or alcohol in 2025 include:

• GH8 13
• GHB 13
• W1NE 30
• UNCORK
• CHMPGN
• CHAMPGN
• MINIBAR
• M1N1B4R
• TIPSY

I’m a ‘speed queen.’ Can I put that on my custom plate?

The DOL won’t approve customized license plates that reference speeding or other crimes.

Alteady in 2025, the department has denied two variations on the term “speed queen”: SPDQN and 5PDQN.

Other crime-related custom plates rejected by state officials include:

• M4LICE
• MALICE
• ILLEG4L
• ILLEGAL
• 4RSON
• ARRRSON
• 4RRRSON

This story was originally published September 29, 2025 at 5:00 AM.