# Niche Number Plates

### 2024-07-01

I never really took note of vehicle number plates until I started driving and I started at an interesting time, just as the local government ran out of their old pattern going from 000-000 to 999-999, with a new pattern starting CA-00-AA, next would be AB, AC, etc up to ZZ, then 01-AA, my first car was issued CA-25-EV, my second car was CF-07-KR but have changed to a personalised plate SUBUWU. People that I've talked to find the large number of personalised number plates interesting, highlights I've personally seen are 3-14R8 (Pirate), OISEAU, and 404FUEL on an electric car.

Here I have a niche of a niche, with people replacing numbers and letters to make personalised plates I wondered if one could have a 'hidden' personalisation, one that looks like a normal issued plate but forms a word. I quickly discovered that all plates from CA-00-AA to CZ-99-ZZ are unsurprisingly already reserved, this only pivioted my idea to just seeing what was possible.

First step was to get a list of all 6 letter words begining with C, easily done with a quick search thanks to scrabble and crossword solvers, which gave me 1756 words. Next I split out the two middle letters and converted them to numbers as per the chart I came up with based off typical '1337 speak'

- A to 4
- B to 8
- E to 3
- G to 6
- H to 4
- I to 1
- J to 1
- L to 1
- O to 0
- S to 5
- T to 7
- Z to 2

Thankfully the first word in my dictionary works, Caaing, a Scots word for a Pilot Whale. Using the conversion we get CA-41-NG, I run this conversion for all 1756 words converting any non-matching letter to number conversions into nothing and filter out any results that are shorter than 6 characters long. This comes out to 519 converted words, lots like Caaing aren't very interesting, unless of course you're a Scotish marine biologist who wants a remote Australian personalised number plate disguised as a standard issue plate. So with that I'll give you a send off with my personal picks and a link to the full list.

- CA-88-IE (Cabbie. Informal, a taxi driver)
- CA-35-AR (Caesar. a title used by Roman emperors)
- CA-57-LE (Castle. a large building, typically of the medieval period, fortified against attack with thick walls, battlements, towers, and in many cases a moat)
- CE-51-UM (Cesium. chemical element of atomic number 55)
- CH-45-ED (Chased. Past-tense, pursue in order to catch or catch up with)
- CH-45-ER (Chaser. a person or thing that pursues someone or something)
- CH-45-ES (Chases. Plural, pursue in order to catch or catch up with)
- CL-45-SY (Classy. stylish and sophisticated)
- CO-45-TS (Coasts. Plural, the part of the land adjoining or near the sea)
- CO-17-US (Coitus. sexual intercourse)
- CR-34-KY (Creaky. making or liable to make a creaking sound when being moved or when pressure is applied)
- CR-33-PY (Creepy. causing an unpleasant feeling of fear or unease)
- CU-57-OM (Custom. made or done to order; custom-made)
- CU-70-FF (Cutoff. an act of stopping or interrupting the supply of something)
- CY-80-RG (Cyborg. a fictional or hypothetical person whose physical abilities are extended beyond normal human limitations by mechanical elements built into the body)

Full lists

Sorry after going through again I couldn't stay away and bring it back to why I delved into making the list, as of writing the newest plate I have seen started with CF-71 which is getting close to the first CG plates and means 110 of the 519 words in my list are out in the wild.