Drivers 'mindblowing' discovery has everyone searching their own number plate

A woman has revealed she was left 'mind blown' after discovering what the letters on her number plate actually mean.

Let's be honest, none of us have ever given much thought to the jumble of digits adorning the number plates on our cars.

However it turns out there's actually a method behind assigned the letters and numbers, as one woman realised in a viral post on social media.

Taking to TikTok, mum Courtney (@courtneywrightxxx) revealed that after seven years behind the wheel she'd finally discovered what the letters which make up her number plate actually mean.

"Oh my god I've actually learnt something new this morning," she told her followers. "So I just thought the only relevance to a car number plate was the number... so the first two letters on your number plate actually mean something."

She went on to explain that the first two letters on the plate reveal where the vehicle was registered, with her old car having an 'MV' registration which stands for Manchester.

"You've got where the car was registered, the year it was registered, and then just a random sequence," she explained.

"My old car was MV - mean that car was registered in Manchester.

"They all have different codes, so it goes from MA to M- whatever, and that's all from Manchester.

"I'm literally mind blown," she added.

What do the letters on a UK number plate mean?

Codes from BA to BY stand for Birmingham, while EA to EY are for Essex and OA to OY is for Oxford.

"These refer to the DVLA office where the car was registered," Jon Kirkbright, the sales director of Private Number Plates, previously explained to Diamond Advanced Motorists.

However not all letters correspond to the city where a vehicle was registered, as they can also be related to regions such as 'Garden of England' or 'Forest and Fens' (per AbsoluteReg).

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After the first two letters you then have two numbers which relate to the year the car was made - so a new car purchased after September of this year would have '75' - which is then followed by three random letters.

"This may be why your number plates start with the same letters if you buy more than one car from the same dealership - it's not just a coincidence."

This means a car which the registration 'MA75 ABC' would be a new car registered to a driver in Manchester.

What are the rules around private plates?

So if a standard number plate details the age and location a car was registered, how does this apply to private plates?

According to Kirkbright, these rules are a little stricter, while it's legal to make a car seem older using a dateless plate, it's illegal to make a car appear newer.

"For example, you cannot put an '11' number plate on a car registered in 2007. It is an offence to misrepresent the registration in any way," he added.