Serial maps, not slogans
How US license-plate formats work
A passenger plate is a public serial. Most states publish — or at least consistently stamp — a skeleton of letters and digits. This atlas writes that skeleton as a pattern, then asks what strings the pattern can hold. SPR 9932 is one such string for every AAA-9999 state; it is not a California 1ABC123 serial.
Slots and separators
Think of a plate as a row of slots. Texas AAA-9999 has seven serial slots plus a hyphen that is punctuation. California 9AAA999 also has seven serial slots, but the first is a digit, so SPR9932 (letter-first) fails the map even though the character count matches. That is why a combination page can be a match in Texas and a comparison in California without inventing two different cars.
Separators (space, hyphen, dot) are restored when the atlas prints a display form. They never multiply the combination count. Stacked region codes, graphics of flags, and university seals are likewise not serial values in this model.
Why states change maps
A three-letter, three-digit block holds 26³ × 10³ = 17.5 million strings before skips. Large fleets exhaust that. Texas left 123-ABC for ABC-1234 in 2012; California left AAA 999 for 1ABC123 in 1980. History paragraphs on each state format page record the previous map so a combination can be dated as a teaching example, not as an issuance event.
Vanity versus sequential
Sequential plates walk the map. Vanity (personalised) plates are requested phrases and often ignore the skeleton — seven letters, a word, a lucky number. If SPR 9932 fits AAA-9999, this atlas treats it as a series example. That is a modelling choice, not a DMV classification of a real die.
Worked example: SPR 9932
Alphanumeric length 7. Letters SPR in positions 1–3. Digits 9932 in positions 4–7. Spoken: Sierra · Papa · Romeo · nine · nine · three · two. In Texas the display is SPR-9932; in Arizona the same glyphs would print without a hyphen. Neighbours include SPR 9931 and SPR 9933. The string is a generated example on this website even if, coincidentally, a motorist somewhere displays it.
Open the Texas leaf: SPR 9932 — license plate combination. Then contrast a mismatch: the same slug under California still explains why the map rejects it.
Passenger maps in this atlas
Skips are modelling choices documented per state, not a universal federal ban.
| State | Pattern | Classes | Map size | Skipped |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alabama | 9AA9999 | 2 letters + 5 digits | 67,600,000 | — |
| Alaska | AAA 999 | 3 letters + 3 digits | 12,167,000 | IOQ |
| Arizona | AAA9999 | 3 letters + 4 digits | 175,760,000 | — |
| Arkansas | 999 AAA | 3 letters + 3 digits | 17,576,000 | — |
| California | 9AAA999 | 3 letters + 4 digits | 156,250,000 | I |
| Colorado | AAA-A99 | 4 letters + 2 digits | 45,697,600 | — |
| Connecticut | AA-99999 | 2 letters + 5 digits | 67,600,000 | — |
| Delaware | 999999 | 6 digits | 1,000,000 | — |
| Florida | AAA A99 | 4 letters + 2 digits | 45,697,600 | — |
| Georgia | AAA9999 | 3 letters + 4 digits | 175,760,000 | — |
| Hawaii | AAA 999 | 3 letters + 3 digits | 17,576,000 | — |
| Idaho | A 999999 | 1 letter + 6 digits | 26,000,000 | — |
| Illinois | AA 99999 | 2 letters + 5 digits | 67,600,000 | — |
| Indiana | 999AAA | 3 letters + 3 digits | 17,576,000 | — |
| Iowa | AAA 999 | 3 letters + 3 digits | 17,576,000 | — |
| Kansas | 999 AAA | 3 letters + 3 digits | 17,576,000 | — |
| Kentucky | 999 AAA | 3 letters + 3 digits | 17,576,000 | — |
| Louisiana | AAA 999 | 3 letters + 3 digits | 17,576,000 | — |
| Maine | 9999 AA | 2 letters + 4 digits | 6,760,000 | — |
| Maryland | 9AA9999 | 2 letters + 5 digits | 67,600,000 | — |
| Massachusetts | 9AAA 99 | 3 letters + 3 digits | 17,576,000 | — |
| Michigan | AAA 9999 | 3 letters + 4 digits | 175,760,000 | — |
| Minnesota | AAA-999 | 3 letters + 3 digits | 17,576,000 | — |
| Mississippi | AAA 999 | 3 letters + 3 digits | 17,576,000 | — |
| Missouri | AA9 A9A | 4 letters + 2 digits | 45,697,600 | — |
| Montana | 9-99999A | 1 letter + 6 digits | 26,000,000 | — |
| Nebraska | AAA 999 | 3 letters + 3 digits | 17,576,000 | — |
| Nevada | 999.A99 | 1 letter + 5 digits | 2,600,000 | — |
| New Hampshire | 999 9999 | 7 digits | 10,000,000 | — |
| New Jersey | A99-AAA | 4 letters + 2 digits | 45,697,600 | — |
| New Mexico | 999-AAA | 3 letters + 3 digits | 17,576,000 | — |
| New York | AAA-9999 | 3 letters + 4 digits | 175,760,000 | — |
| North Carolina | AAA-9999 | 3 letters + 4 digits | 175,760,000 | — |
| North Dakota | 999 AAA | 3 letters + 3 digits | 17,576,000 | — |
| Ohio | AAA 9999 | 3 letters + 4 digits | 175,760,000 | — |
| Oklahoma | AAA-999 | 3 letters + 3 digits | 17,576,000 | — |
| Oregon | 999 AAA | 3 letters + 3 digits | 17,576,000 | — |
| Pennsylvania | AAA-9999 | 3 letters + 4 digits | 175,760,000 | — |
| Rhode Island | 99999 | 5 digits | 100,000 | — |
| South Carolina | AAA 999 | 3 letters + 3 digits | 17,576,000 | — |
| South Dakota | 9A9 999 | 1 letter + 5 digits | 2,600,000 | — |
| Tennessee | 9A9-9A9 | 2 letters + 4 digits | 6,760,000 | — |
| Texas | AAA-9999 | 3 letters + 4 digits | 175,760,000 | — |
| Utah | A99 9AA | 3 letters + 3 digits | 17,576,000 | — |
| Vermont | AAA 999 | 3 letters + 3 digits | 17,576,000 | — |
| Virginia | AAA-9999 | 3 letters + 4 digits | 175,760,000 | — |
| Washington | AAA9999 | 3 letters + 4 digits | 175,760,000 | — |
| West Virginia | 9A9 999 | 1 letter + 5 digits | 2,600,000 | — |
| Wisconsin | AAA-9999 | 3 letters + 4 digits | 175,760,000 | — |
| Wyoming | 9-99999 | 6 digits | 1,000,000 | — |
| District of Columbia | AA-9999 | 2 letters + 4 digits | 6,760,000 | — |