You see them on the car in front of you while you drive; personalized license plates. These plates, located on the back and front of your car, spell out a word or phrase, usually in a form of short-hand writing. You may even spend time trying to decode the short message the driver has printed on their plates. Create your own vanity license plate by first picking a name, word or phrase and converting it for use on your plate.
Check with your state's Department of Motor Vehicles to find out the requirements for personalized license plates. For example, in Florida, you can choose up to seven numbers, letters, hyphens and spaces for your custom plate.
Write down the word, name or phrase in capital letters that you want on the license plate. For example, you may want to use your name, "JOHN SMITH," on the plates.
Remove the vowels to shorten the name if it is too long. Take the vowels from "JOHN SMITH" to make "JHN SMTH." This now has eight characters, including the space between the two words.
Push the words together to form one long string of letters such as "JHNSMTH."
Replace letters with numbers to create a more unique name. For example, take the "O" in "JOHN" and replace it with a "0" to make "J0HN." Replace "E" with "3," "T" with "7" and "I" with "1."
Take out any other extraneous letters. For example, take out the "H" in "JHNSMTH" to create "JNSMTH" which can still be read as "John Smith."
Add any additional letters or numbers to the start or end of the name. Add the number of family members, the last two digits of your birth year, or "II" if you are the second person in your family with the name.
Contact your state's Department of Motor Vehicles to see if your converted name is available for you to use.
