Illinois drivers got creative when it came to their license plate requests in 2025, but not enough to get past the Illinois Secretary of State’s office.
Revealing the list of rejected license plates from the year, Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias said he appreciated the creativity, but “they must meet certain standards of good taste and decency.”
According to the office, more than 55,600 requests for vanity and personalized plates were made in 2025, but more than 550 of them were denied “because the combinations were deemed inflammatory, profane, offensive or too difficult to read.”
“All grounds for rejection under state law,” the office said.
According to state law, the Secretary of State’s office has the authority to reject any application for personalized or vanity plates that “creates a connotation that is offensive to good taste and decency.”
Among the list cited by Giannoulias were things like “IBPOOPIN,” which he said was “pretty funny,” and “ICUP.”
This one, I guess you just say the letters. Apparently, a 10-year-old requested this one,” he said.
Others cited were BDASMOM.
“I keep telling my wife to stop requesting this plate,” Giannoulias said.
Giannoulias said there were “lots more that we had to deny that are far raunchier and inappropriate.”
Examples of some of the rejected requests include:
*naughty language ahead
- BBL
- BDASMOM
- BLUBALN
- BRICKED
- IBPOOPN
- ICUP
- PRIUSSY
- SNDNUDZ
- SYBAU
- TYPESHT
“As always, go ahead and get creative, but please keep it clean and avoid ending up on the naughty list,” Giannoulias said.
According to the office, the “Pick a Plate” feature allows residents to customize their plates, while also checking to see if a plate has already been purchased by another motorist.
A plate with a combination of letters and numbers will costs $47, while a vanity plate with all letters costs an extra $94, on top of the price of obtaining a plate in Illinois.
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