'MEDPIMP,' 'HPYHOKR' among the latest 'vulgar' personalized license plates rejected by California

Every year, 2.8 million license plates are ordered in the state of California. Out of those plates, about 100,000 are personalized, with roughly 20 percent flagged for further review. The fate of those plates — including "URHATIN," "DSNUTTZ," and "NOSHYT" — are in the hands of four full-time DMV staffers who pore over every application to determine whether or not "DATBUTT" means what you think it means (it does, actually).

"They take this really seriously, this is their job to understand and review their plates," DMV spokesman Artemio Armenta told NBC Los Angeles. They've found that most of the flagged plates involve curse words, white supremacy, and Hitler, but sexual terms and drug references are also on the banned list — one exception is "69" for when a car was made in 1969. Anyone hoping to have a personalized plate with any variation of the names "Dick," "Woody," and "Cox" are basically out of luck, as are people looking to reference eating anything, various nicknames for cats, and balls of any sort. There are also some phrases you wouldn't expect that are immediately flagged, like anything with "TT," which the DMV says is "Tagalog for 'penis.'"

NBC Los Angeles has a database of 10,000 rejected license plates from the past 18 months, including reviewer comments and the customer's meaning on the application, on its website, and there are some gems. Hundreds were obviously needling the DMV, like "HEWDRAT," who claimed to have "lived in Oregon, [where] I cut trees for a living. Hew is a name given to someone who chops trees. The rat is because I look like a rat." Others are pretty non-nefarious, like the "twerk" related "TWORK," explained thusly: "My name is Toan and I like to work. Put it together and you can call me Twork." "SO SALTY," flagged because it "sounds sexual," was more about poking fun at haters. "Salty is a euphemism for jealous," the customer wrote. "'So salty' = so jealous. Make sure space is between so and salty."

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Despite allegedly going to a "tea importer," "TBAG4U" was denied, as was "HPYHOKR" for a crocheter and "MEDPIMP" for the physician who started medpimp.com, "a medical information website" where "PIMP" stands for "personalized integrated medical professionals." Unfortunately for him, "CLUELESSDOC" won't fit on a plate.