Searching for Number Plates using Regfinder

The number plate Word Search box is on the top left of every Regfinder page, so you can't miss it (see above).

If you're used to using something like the Google or Yahoo search engines then you'll work this out easily. To perform a number plate search you type a word in the box, anything you like, press the 'Search' button then Regfinder goes away and looks up all the number plates that can be made from the word you typed in. The results are displayed in the 'Not For Sale' and 'Available to Buy' lists on the page.

As UK number plates you can buy from DVLA can only have between 5 and 7 characters certain rules are applied to whatever you type into the box, these currently are:

For example if you search for the word 'BEDAZZLE' which is eight characters long Regfinder will probably look up 'BEDAZZL', 'BEDAZLE', 'BDAZZLE', 'BEDZZLE' and probably some other versions as time goes on. Depending on the characters Regfinder will also try to squeeze your word into 5 and 6 character plates. That's so that you don't miss any cool 5 or 6 character number plates that might look good on your motor!

Rule 3. Multiple Words. For example if you searched for 'FAST 4 ME' Regfinder will remove the spaces and look up 'FAST4ME' but also include the truncation in Rule 2. So the number plate search would look up 'FST4ME', 'FAST4M' etc as well.

Rule 4. Regfinder also looks up nicknames of the word you searched for where possible. So for example if you searched for 'STEPHEN' Regfinder will also include 'STEVE' and 'STEVEN' in the number plate search, as well as the Rule 2 truncation on those nicknames. This relies on whether Regfinder knows any nicknames for that word, so don't expect it to be perfect. We try though, Regfinder's number plate search is constantly being updated and improved.

Rule 5. I can't remember what it was but there is one, so I put this here, to remind me to remember what it was.