Kudos to car owners who have vanity plates - for having gone out of their way (and for having spent the extra fees) to personalize their vehicles. Rather than be subject the whim of their states and be assigned pseudo-random, characterless codes, they decided to break free and shout out to the world ... well, you name it - or, in some cases, you try to name it.
Some vanity plates are pretty obvious, but the meaning of others are known to maybe only the owner himself. Even if the words or names can be deciphered - often a difficult or impossible task in itself - their intent often remains obscured. For example, it's not apparent whether a name on a plate is that of the vehicle's owner or that of his loved one.
Certainly, "vanity platers" don't have a large "canvas" on which to work. As far as I can tell, they're limited to only a maximum of eight symbols, possibly even less in some states. So they have to cram their message in pretty tightly, often abbreviating it or taking liberties with spelling. But vanity-plate holders are nothing if not creative and efficient.
Below are links to pages with photographs of vanity license plates which I have encountered in my travels, 30 per page. Generally, when I do my "business" - that is, photographing a license plate - a vehicle is not occupied, although I have been able to get a few shots of rear plates while an occupant is present, by working quickly and surreptitiously. And it's a rare event for me to ask a driver to photograph their plate, but I have done that on occasion. (You have to admit that vanity plates are good conversation-starters. I will probably be more forward as this work progresses.)
You will notice that the great majority of the plates on this page are from New York. That's not to suggest that New York drivers are more likely than those of other states to possess vanity plates, just that since it's my home state I'm more apt to encounter New York vehicles in my travels. (Consequently, since I have more "experience" with New York license plates, I have noticed that some, but not all, contain a small silhouette of the state. I believe that it is treated as a hyphen in such a context.)
One more thing: If, by some chance, you are the bearer of a license plate which appears on one of these pages and you object to having it displayed, just drop me a note and I will expunge it. (I would find it unusual for an individual to proudly flaunt a personalized license plate on their vehicle yet not want to show it off to a potentially much larger audience on the Internet - but not completely inconsistent, mind you. And, as I indicated, regardless of the reasoning I would be completely agreeable to anyone who wishes that their plate not be presented in this venue.) Better yet, if you would like to tell me the story behind your plate - especially if it's a cryptic one - also send me an e-mail . I'll credit you by name if you wish, or I'll omit your name if you prefer.
Yet another thing: I was informed by a fellow who had "caught" me photographing his vanity plate that certain unscrupulous individuals make phony license plates, copying them from actual ones. (He suggested that that might have been what I was up to.) First of all, I wasn't even aware of such a practice until he brought it up. (Now that I think about it, I'm not surprised that some people would do this, what with identity theft and all.) Secondly, I want to assure everybody that that has never been and will never be the purpose of my photographing vanity plates. It should be noted that the quality of my pictures are so poor - usually off-center in some way - that I doubt that even if somebody were to try to copy any of these shots to make bogus license plates they would be very successful without significant adjustment. Furthermore, I presume that anyone who is making their own illegal license plates has equipment which wouldn't rely on a photograph of a real plate to produce a phony copy, that if they wanted to do their dirty deed all they'd have to do is jot down the markings and work from that. But that's just an intelligent guess on my part.
April 20, 2005: In the last several days I have been inundated with e-mails about my "Vanity Plates" pages. (One of the correspondents indicated that he learned of these pages at netscape.net. How Netscape found out about them is a total mystery to me. Regardless...) First, let me say "thank-you" to all who have sent notes. Unfortunately, I'm just one person trying to maintain a bunch of web pages of interest to me - and not just the ones about vanity plates - as well as do other non-web-related activities. As a result, I have responded to just a handful of the many e-mails which I have received, and probably won't be able to respond to many more of them - and certainly not all of them. If you send me just the description of a plate, I will try to post it on my "Vanity Plates - No Photos" page. (See the new section at the bottom of that page.) If you send me a photo of a vanity plate (which I especially appreciate), it might take even longer for it to be posted. I am running low on server space, so I haven't posted my own pictures of plates in a while. (I'm still capturing them, with the intention that I will eventually display them.) So please bear with me all around. Thanks again for your interest, and please continue to e-mail me anyway.