Urban Dictionary Will Help Maine Determine Whether Vanity Plates Are Too Vulgar

The long, winding road of what you can and can't have on your custom vanity plate in Maine is about to take another detour. For more than 7 years, Mainers have used creativity or just pure vulgarity to express themselves through vanity plates. For decades, Maine had some of the toughest restrictions on what was allowed to be said in 7 characters. When the rules relaxed in 2015, it didn't take long for Mainers to catch on, and driving down to the highway became a game of how many of the seven dirty words you could spot on plates. George Carlin would have been pleased.

Unfortunately, for those that get a kick out of their vulgar vanity plates, it's all likely coming to an end soon. According to CentralMaine.com, Secretary of State Shenna Bellows is set to enact new legislation that will allow her office to reject or recall license plates deemed to be too vulgar. By the end of 2022, there's likely to be no more four-letter F words on vanity plates in Vacationland.

Maine will have its own Vanity Plate Review Committee that will comb through applications for new vanity plates, as well as review ones that should have needed approval over the last 7 years. That committee plans to consult Urban Dictionary, the popular online dictionary for slang words and phrases, to ensure Maine doesn't something vulgar to fall through the cracks.

Only about 120 drivers in Maine have vanity plates that feature blatant profanity. Those plates are likely to be the first recalled. Subsequent plates that feature vulgar innuendo would be next.