You have seen millions of car tags, you see them every day when driving, but do some stand out? I’ll bet you have observed a few. I have started remembering a few unique ones. One day at Aldi, there was a shiny cobalt blue Corvette with AZUL as the only thing on the plate. I surmised that it was Spanish for the color blue, as it was very, VERY blue, the tag and the car outstanding. The driver must love blue a lot! Last week I saw MS PRSY, which I guessed was Miss Prissy. On the Square, there is a car with a TEENSY plate; I figured that it belongs to a tiny lady. Today I saw TT4LIFE. Unless it belongs to a urologist wanting patients, I’ll assume that it’s someone’s initials. For life?

Fancy vanity plates on your car, in the state of Georgia, currently cost $70 the first year you get one, and $55 every subsequent year. There are seven spaces: the first three being ABC (3 letters), then 1-2-3-4 (4 digits) on a regular tag. On a ‘vanity’ tag, there are seven slots which can be all letters or all numbers. Or only a few.  Since I’m a reader, I peruse tags when at a stoplight or in traffic. Obviously, the unique ones stand out. The governor of Georgia’s tag simply read GA 1 on a white field. I Googled “What is the tag on a U.S. president’s limo?” Have you ever seen a presidential limo? Well, it varies and is top secret. If you were president, what tag would you designate? ‘No.1’, or simply your initials? ‘CCV’ (Latin for 205, some days I feel it!) or your birthday? 5 15 47 (that is seven spaces). Sometimes it’s a clever puzzle to figure it out, and you might figure it out as the car drives away. This one took me a moment: PZZL MN, so I guessed that he liked to do puzzles? in competitions? I saw JKMNOPQ, and I knew it had to be saying something, and I repeated it out loud, “ah… it’s the letter L missing, is her name Noel?” How about XQQSME?  Was it Steve Martin who said that a lot in the 1970s?

Thirty years ago, on the way to the beach, a black stretch limo passed our car, with blacked-out windows. Their plate was just 666, and it was creepy. We weren’t sure if it was the Evil One or a rockstar. It is legal; however, nothing profane, obscene, defamatory, copyrighted or trademarked words are allowed. I heard that particular number sequence has been removed. In 2007, records show that 9.7 million in the U.S. had vanity plates. Probably a lot more today, kind of like tattooing your car? I just saw OMG 77, probably celebrating a big birthday. I saw MY 40, on a cute red car, and assumed it was a 40th birthday gift (to herself?) When I had my own art gallery from 2009-13, it was called Van Go’s Studio, named in honor of Vincent van Gogh. I suppose a lot of artists who drove vans wanted to have a Van Go plate, so I applied for VAN GO, but IT WAS TAKEN! I kept trying for some untapped combo, and after six extra attempts I got VANGO 7, which I had for four years.

As far as the Georgia numbers go, in 2016, there were 142,993 active vanity plates. In 2025, there were 488,000, which also includes specialty plates (a charity, a college, vets, etc.) In 2024, there were 600 rejections. I read some of them… interesting…There are millions of possibilities; you can’t always get what you want (ha ha Rolling Stones), as in my attempts.

Recently, I saw CAR NUT, pretty obvious what he or she likes. One of my faves is simply UH, on a white field. I was a backseat passenger when UH passed us. I said to my carmates, “Y’all, look at that tag! It just says UH!”  Then they said “UH.” I saw SAVVY on a tag; I had a friend with a daughter named Savannah, but they called her Savvy. I screenshot it and sent it to her, but it was not HER Savvy, but it WAS her Savvy’s birthday! Maybe just someone who felt savvy? What about DIZZ E, URA PAL, URTHE 1, COOL IT, COOL 4U, SEE YA, MAMAOF6, HOOSJAG, ROTWYLR, PROF X, HI DEBT, KIDLESS, BEWICH, SAY AHH, BYE, NOPLANB, ILL SUE, (lawyer? Stay far back!)

At my grandson’s boot camp at Parris Island, I saw a big red Dodge Ram, belonging to a drill master, his plate read BREAKEM, which is exactly what they do to recruits! At a wedding in N.C, the new age officiant who quoted Rumi, had a yellow VW bug convertible with a tag I MARI M (I marry them). She told me that she had actually gotten gigs from it. My sister-in-law saw OOPSHE in N.C. Was it oops he or oop she? Like the Oracle of Delphi? Ambiguous.

So why do people get a vanity plate? Personal branding, stand out, to show off, to be funny, a business ad, celebrations, dating app, conversation starters, etc.  Once I asked a man parked next to me in a bright yellow car what his plate meant, it was such a bizarre puzzle.  What will yours be?

Carol Veliotis is a local columnist for The Covington News. She can be reached at carol.veliotis@gmail.com.