HomePersonalised Number PlatesTips on Customising Personalised Number Plate Jayne Henry July 29, 2011 Personalised Number Plates Personalised number plates are growing in popularity as more and more people want to use their vehicles as extensions of themselves or indeed their businesses. With over 31 million other cars on the road, private number plates will allow you to stand out from the crowd. Many people buy number plates to represent themselves, their hobbies, their interests, their pets and of course their business. I look through the list constantly to see what people are buying, what number plates are available and what number plates are coming down the line. I can see straight-away what some number plates mean while others I know are personalised but they don’t appear like that straight-away. That’s the beauty of personalised plates. They can immediately tell the world something about you, think Lord Sugars car – AMS 1. Or they can just mean something to you, e.g., JHZ 1 which is just for me – Jayne Henry to celebrate my birthday on the 21st. Maybe I should get that for my husband so he’ll remember my birthday! But we get a lot of requests from disappointed people who find that the numbers or letters that they wanted are gone. Thankfully, as we know our stuff, we can advise customers on how to get the best combination of letters and numbers for their purposes. With a few tricks of the trade, these disappointed people become very excited people. And that’s a great thing to see. So instead of keeping this information to ourselves, we’ve decided to share our tips with you. If you’re looking for a number plate and your desired spelling is gone, it helps to be a bit creative. 1. Substitute numbers for letters Those of us old enough to remember using calculators to spell words will be able to do this. it’s the same logic – substitute numbers for letters One (1) for I or L Three (3) for E Five (5) for S 2. Substitute letters for numbers If numbers can be substituted for letters, then letters can be substituted for numbers. A can be used as 4 B can be used as 8 or 13 D can be used as a 0 3. Text Speak To get the most into a text message, ‘text speak’ is used. It substitutes letters with numbers and shortens down words into very basic characters. Sometimes when I get a text message, I have to look twice to see the meaning and other times I get it straight away. But because text speak is here to stay, you should consider using text speak on your personalised number plate. Use B4 for before Use LOL for lots of love or laughing out loud Use GR8 for great Use OMG for Oh my god (if that’s a thing you regularly say!) In summary, be as creative as you can. If the spelling that you really wanted isn’t available, it’s not the end of the world…or the end of your own personalised plate. Play around with numbers and letters and you’ll be surprised. Good luck.
