British motorists want coronavirus-related private plates but ‘Boss’ remains top choice

Analysis of over 100,000 searches on a leading number plate provider shows there have been 1,324 coronavirus-related searches on the site, making it the 15th most popular subject in the past year. These searches include terms such as Covid, Covid19 and Corona.

Meanwhile, the Black Lives Matter movement has also seen interest from motorists, with 139 searches for BLM-related plates in the past two months.

However, Boss remains the most popular term overall, having been searched for 28,427 in the past year, and 80,266 times in the past four years. This is followed by Boy (10,166) and BMW (8,321).

Liverpool has the highest number of fans looking to show their allegiance on their plate, with 5,629 searches for LFC, while fast food fans also wanted to demonstrate their passion for chicken, with KFC seeing 1,500 searches.

In the world of gaming, Grand Theft Auto came out on top, with 915 searches for GTA, followed closely by Call of Duty, with 895 COD searches.

Unsurprisingly, London had the highest volume of searches by far, with 57,010. Birmingham took second with just 9,976. However, Newcastle took top spot when the number of plate searches is compared with the number of cars in the city, with 5,050 searches per 100,000 vehicles.

Mark Greening, motoring expert at GoCompare, which conducted the study, said: “It’s really interesting to see how everything from current events to household names are being searched for by Brits to add to their cars and it’s brought out some unlikely popular choices. When you register a personalised plate to a vehicle, you need to tell your insurer immediately, otherwise, your policy could be invalidated.

If you’ve paid a lot for a particular registration number, you should consider whether it’s properly insured. Whilst a personalised plate shouldn’t impact your car insurance, it can impact how it looks on the road to other drivers.”