Vehicle Registration Numbers
REGISTRATION NUMBERS
In some parts of the world it is the numbers rather than the letters within a registration that are of most importance to the owner. Some numbers are hugely significant within the culture and in some cases social standing.
In the UK people may have a special or lucky number depending on their preference. This could just be the month they were born (5 for May, 6 for June, 7 for July etc) or some other personal reason relating to their life or family.
Chinese Lucky Numbers
The ancient culture of China attaches great significance to numbers, believing that these have the power to bring good (or bad!) luck. 8 , or 888 are considered to be good luck. Both registrations “18” and “28” were sold in Hong Kong for $16.5m and $18.1m HKD, which are both in excess of £1.5m GBP!
In 2009, 5 Chinese were sentenced to up to 16 months for hijacking a number plate printing machine in Beijing! As the machine approached the printing of an auspicious plate ending “8888″ the armed men threatened and beat anyone who came near!
The luckiness – or otherwise – of a number is often based on the meaning of the Chinese word that sounds the closest to the number. Some of the most commonly associated number and word combinations are shown below:
- The number 1 – “yao” – can mean “want” or “has”.
- The number 4 – “shi” – is usually taken to mean “death”, but can also be seen as “generation”, “world” or “is”.
- The number 5 – “wu” – is very close to “wo” meaning “me”. Also to “nothing” or “not” in Cantonese.
- The number 6 – “liu” – means “slippery” or “smooth”.
- The number 7 – “chi” – sounds like “chu” meaning “go” or “che” meaning “eat”.
- The number 8 – “ba” – sounds close to “fa” which means “prosper”.
In China the number 54 is a good omen. It means no death or “live forever”
A Chinese car owner would be very unlikely to buy private registration plates containing the number 4. The association between the number four and death is considered very inauspicious. Car Registration numbers containing 8 would be the opposite, believed by many Chinese to bring good luck and fortune.
Lucky numbers elsewhere
Of course many other cultures have strong associations between numbers and fortune which affect the choice of car registration number plates.
In the system of Abjad numerals the Arabic letters of the opening phrase of the Quran sum to 786. This makes this a highly regarded number within some parts of the Muslim world, in places even used in place of the Holy text to avoid disrespect. Therefore, a number plate containing this number may have a surprisingly large market.
Whilst some in the UK may consider such beliefs superstitious, we should ask ourselves how we’d feel about taking flight 666 at 13:00 on Friday the 13th!
Indeed we do get customers who want to take their chances and buy personalised number plates with “13″ on them. Other popular numbers are “321″, “123″ and trebles like “777″ (or “999″ for an Emergency service worker).
