Missouri issued 100,000+ personalized license plates. See 25 that were rejected
This story references profanity and may be offensive to some readers.
From “Hawk Tuah” to “Cat Poo,” the Missouri Department of Revenue rejected these personalized license plates in the last year.
With $15 and a short saying, Missourians can buy custom tags for their car or truck. But their six-character saying can’t get too saucy.
Each license plate issued in Missouri must follow state obscenity laws, which say that personalized license plates cannot be dangerous or “obscene, profane, patently offensive or contemptuous of a racial or ethnic group, or offensive to good taste or decency.”
The Star reviewed 262 unique license plate configurations rejected between June 2024 and May 2025, obtained through a Missouri Sunshine Law request. During that time, the state issued 3 million license plates, approximately 3% of which were personalized plates.
The Star was able to guess the meanings of 226 rejected license plates, but 36 remain a mystery.
Most of the rejected plates contained profanity and/or sexual language, and all were rejected on the grounds of being “not allowed by statute.”
The most common profanity identified by The Star was “f---,” with 86 instances, followed by “a--“ with 25 and “sh--“ with 19. Thirteen contained the phrase “F--- around, find out,” alongside 10 stating “f--- you” and nine with “bad a--.”
Missouri officials caught attempts to spell prohibited words backwards, including L0H55A and NEMES.
They also rejected two British profanities (WANNKR and JBAGS), Colombian slang (CH1MBA) and even the Serbian swear word, J3B1GA.
While Joe Biden was president, three rejected license plates threw shade on him: FCKJ0E, FUKJ0E and FJB247. This trend reversed post-inauguration, when the DOR rejected three plates telling off the 45th and 47th president, Donald Trump: FDT, FUDJT and FK4745.
The viral “Hawk Tuah” video published in June 2024 was a large source of rejected configurations. The saying inspired 22 unique rejected plates:
- HAK2UA
- HAKTU
- HACK2A
- HAK2A
- H0K2AH
- H0C2UH
- H0K2UH
- H0KT0A
- HCKTUA
- HCK2AH
- HUK2AH
- HWK2UA
- HWK2A
- HWK2HA
- HWK2UH
- HWKT0A
- HWKT00
- HWKTAH
- HWKTWA
- H4C2AH
- H4CTUA
- H4WK2A
Here is a selection of 25 license plate configurations rejected by the DOR:
- PENT1S
- FUCQ
- 69G0D
- T1TT1E
- B0NEUR
- CATP00
- CUNTYY
- KEWCH1
- HALS8N
- GAYAF
- GTHBCH
- L84S3X
- MURDR1
- MFM0VE
- NKDFUN
- ETMYAS
- 0SHE8
- W8NKER
- 0MW2FU
- LRGPNS
- SEXTME
- WWJD69
- 1HUMP
- TNYPP
- ETASS
How are personalized license plates reviewed?
Three DOR employees have to agree to reject a custom license plate application, said JoDonn Chaney, spokesperson for the DOR.
If one employee spots profanity or offensive language in an application, then it is sent to another employee, and possibly moved up the chain.
The DOR director can revoke a personalized plate after it was approved, which has happened on rare occasions, Chaney said.
What about the First Amendment?
License plates are not protected speech under the First Amendment. Since Missouri vanity plates have to follow the state obscenity law, a court would need to find that the state law violates the First Amendment. This happened in Rhode Island, where a Tesla owner was allowed to display a vanity plate reading FKGAS.
Have more questions about oddities in Missouri? Ask the Service Journalism team at kcq@kcstar.com.
This story was originally published September 10, 2025 at 5:00 AM.
