Seven characters was never going to be enough.
Almost every good word was claimed decades ago, and the DMV caps you at seven characters anyway. So don’t put the whole word on the plate. Put the piece you can still claim on the plate, and print the rest as Extra letters that mount on either side of it: METALLICA. Type any word and we’ll find the chunks of it you can still claim at the DMV today.
How this works
We take every plate-sized chunk of your word (2 to 7 characters, the legal range for a California personalized plate) and check which of them are actually available. Longer chunks are better, because fewer characters end up as Extra. You claim the chunk at the DMV like any other plate; the Extra letters say the rest.
Extra is not in production yet. The designer is free, and if you save a design we’ll email you the moment it is orderable. Nothing is charged today.
Keeping this street legal
Two rules shape every design here, and both exist for the same reason: a frame must never make it harder to identify your car.
- Nothing covers the plate.California Vehicle Code 5201 says a frame may not obscure the plate’s characters, the state name, or your registration stickers. Frame characters sit beside the plate, never over it, and the plate keeps its own raised, bordered edge, so the plate always reads on its own.
- We tell you when a word belongs to somebody. Any length works here, including a single letter on one side. What we check is whether the finished word could be read as a plate a real person is driving. A California plate holds at most seven characters, so anything longer is impossible to confuse with one. For shorter words we look the whole word up: if nobody in California holds it, there is nobody to confuse you with. If somebody does, we say so before you design around it, because a frame that completes to their configuration is how their plate ends up written down for your car.
A frame is a decorative holder, not a license plate and not a government document. The plate itself is issued by the DMV and, per Vehicle Code 5101, can never be bought, sold, or reserved by anyone. Frame laws vary by state and enforcement is up to the officer in front of you, so this is our best effort at a design that stays clear of the line, not legal advice.