UK Number Plate Decoder

Continue in the tool

More pages for this tool

UK number plate first two letters region

What the first two letters of a UK plate mean

The memory tag is the pair of letters that opens the plate. The first shows the region and the second the DVLA office within it. The full list comes from INF104 and can be searched in the Tables tab.

Region and office

The DVLA describes the tag as referring to the region of the country where the vehicle was first registered. The INF104 table has 19 region letters, from A (Anglia) to Y (Yorkshire), skipping I, J, Q, T, U, X and Z. Each region is split into offices, each with a range of second letters: in Anglia, AA to AN is Peterborough, AO to AU is Norwich and AV to AY is Ipswich. In Cymru (Wales), CA to CO is Cardiff, CP to CV is Swansea and CW to CY is Bangor. Scotland has five offices, from Glasgow (SA to SJ) to Inverness (SX and SY).
The document records special cases. The HW tag is used only by Isle of Wight residents, and MN (plus the MAN sequence) is reserved for the Isle of Man. London has three offices: Wimbledon (LA to LJ), Borehamwood (LK to LT) and Sidcup (LU to LY). The letter K, curiously, appears without a region name in INF104, with only Borehamwood and Northampton. And the general rule: the DVLA never uses I, Q or Z in tags, and keeps the existing Q marks.
The tag says where the car was first registered, not where it is today: an SA (Glasgow) car may have been running in London for years. Personalised plates can also carry letters that say nothing about the place of registration. Use the tag as a clue to the vehicle's origin, combined with the age identifier, and remember the office is a fact of the original registration, not of where the vehicle is now.

Tags read

First Anglia range

Input: AB
Expected output: Anglia, Peterborough

AA to AN.

Scotland

Input: SA
Expected output: Escócia, Glasgow

SA to SJ.

Wales

Input: CW
Expected output: Cymru, Bangor

CW to CY.

London

Input: LK
Expected output: Londres, Borehamwood

LK to LT.

Isle of Wight

Input: HW
Expected output: Hampshire e Dorset, Portsmouth

Only for island residents.

Forbidden tag

Input: QA
Expected output: Inválida

Never I, Q or Z.

Full tool FAQ

What do the two numbers on a UK plate mean?

They are the age identifier, which says in which half of the year the vehicle was registered. From March to August it is the two-digit year (26 for 2026). From September to February it is that number plus 50 (76 for September 2026 to February 2027).

When was an AB26 CDE plate registered?

Why do September plates add 50 to the year?

What do the first two letters mean?

Why are there no I, Q or Z on plates?

Can I tell the age of a plate from before 2001?

What about Northern Ireland plates?

Does the plate show the car's real age?

Does the tool check MOT, tax or vehicle history?

Can I put a generated plate on a car?

Frequently asked questions

Are all starting letters regions?

Only 19 of them are in the table: A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, K, L, M, N, O, P, R, S, V, W and Y. The letters I, J, Q, T, U, X and Z do not open memory tags in INF104.

What if the tag is not in the table?

The tool flags the tag as outside the DVLA table. It may be a personalised or export plate, or just a typing error.

Do Scottish and Welsh plates have a different format?

No, they follow the same AB12 CDE. The difference is in the tags: Cymru uses the letter C and Scotland the letter S. The DVLA also allows a flag with GB, UK, ENG, SCO or CYM on the side.

Next steps

Region and office

The DVLA describes the tag as referring to the region of the country where the vehicle was first registered. The INF104 table has 19 region letters, from A (Anglia) to Y (Yorkshire), skipping I, J, Q, T, U, X and Z. Each region is split into offices, each with a range of second letters: in Anglia, AA to AN is Peterborough, AO to AU is Norwich and AV to AY is Ipswich. In Cymru (Wales), CA to CO is Cardiff, CP to CV is Swansea and CW to CY is Bangor. Scotland has five offices, from Glasgow (SA to SJ) to Inverness (SX and SY).

The document records special cases. The HW tag is used only by Isle of Wight residents, and MN (plus the MAN sequence) is reserved for the Isle of Man. London has three offices: Wimbledon (LA to LJ), Borehamwood (LK to LT) and Sidcup (LU to LY). The letter K, curiously, appears without a region name in INF104, with only Borehamwood and Northampton. And the general rule: the DVLA never uses I, Q or Z in tags, and keeps the existing Q marks.

The tag says where the car was first registered, not where it is today: an SA (Glasgow) car may have been running in London for years. Personalised plates can also carry letters that say nothing about the place of registration. Use the tag as a clue to the vehicle's origin, combined with the age identifier, and remember the office is a fact of the original registration, not of where the vehicle is now.

Tags read

First Anglia range

Input: AB
Expected output: Anglia, Peterborough

AA to AN.

Scotland

Input: SA
Expected output: Escócia, Glasgow

SA to SJ.

Wales

Input: CW
Expected output: Cymru, Bangor

CW to CY.

London

Input: LK
Expected output: Londres, Borehamwood

LK to LT.

Isle of Wight

Input: HW
Expected output: Hampshire e Dorset, Portsmouth

Only for island residents.

Forbidden tag

Input: QA
Expected output: Inválida

Never I, Q or Z.

Full tool FAQ

What do the two numbers on a UK plate mean?

When was an AB26 CDE plate registered?

Why do September plates add 50 to the year?

What do the first two letters mean?

Why are there no I, Q or Z on plates?

Can I tell the age of a plate from before 2001?

What about Northern Ireland plates?

Does the plate show the car's real age?

Does the tool check MOT, tax or vehicle history?

Can I put a generated plate on a car?

Frequently asked questions

Are all starting letters regions?

Only 19 of them are in the table: A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, K, L, M, N, O, P, R, S, V, W and Y. The letters I, J, Q, T, U, X and Z do not open memory tags in INF104.

What if the tag is not in the table?

The tool flags the tag as outside the DVLA table. It may be a personalised or export plate, or just a typing error.

Do Scottish and Welsh plates have a different format?

No, they follow the same AB12 CDE. The difference is in the tags: Cymru uses the letter C and Scotland the letter S. The DVLA also allows a flag with GB, UK, ENG, SCO or CYM on the side.