In Maine, your license plate says it all.

AUBURN – As a divorced, single mother of five, Linda Sherwood knows what it takes to get through the day.

10ACITY.

Not fluent in vanity license plate? Read: Tenacity.

“It’s a reminder to me just to keep moving on, that I’ve got tenacity and I can do it,” said Sherwood, whose 1999 Chevrolet Suburban has sported the plate for two years.

Before 10ACITY, she had IMBOS (“I am boss” or “I am better off single”). Before that, it was ALIYAH, her Hebrew name, in vanity plate goodness. Because Aliyah means “to go up,” she got the plate to remind herself every day, every time she got in and out of the car, that life was unfolding and she was “going upward.”

Sure, some people didn’t know what ALIYAH meant. Some didn’t quite get IMBOS, either. And 10ACITY often earns her questions about Tennessee.

Still, Sherwood wouldn’t change her vanity plate ways for anything.

Neither would Darlene Thomas, whose 18-year vanity plate history has included SAMYIII for her son and BRNYMBL (Barney-mobile) in homage to the family’s purple car.

Neither would Steve Yenco, whose T2R9 plate declares his love of Township 2, Range 9, the southern entrance to Baxter State Park.

Neither would Denisa Laflamme, who got her MZBEHVN plate when she worked with children as a behavioral specialist.

“You get sick of looking at generic numbers. Who wants to be known as a number?” said Laflamme.

Usually an innocuous jumble of up to seven letters and numbers, license plates are simply supposed to identify specific vehicles. But on nearly 10 percent of Maine vehicles – one of the largest percentages in the country – drivers have mixed and fused those characters into so very much more.

Personal identity. (IGO4SNO)

A creative outlet. (SUN TOY)

A family joke. (L8WHOME)

A sign to the world. (10ACITY)

“It’s totally unique,” Sherwood said.

NOMOMNY

Allowed in Maine since the 1960s, vanity plates have grown increasingly popular. Last year, the Maine Bureau of Motor Vehicles OK’d 19,000 vanity plates, an average of 365 plates each week. Maine now has more than 100,000 vanity plates on the road.

That means 9.8 percent of all Maine plates say something.

“It’s a way to set yourself apart. They’re totally unique, and there aren’t too many things out there you can have that nobody else has,” said Rob Crosby, a vanity plate aficionado from Turner. “And secondly, they say ‘Gee, I’m clever.'”

Maine ranks sixth in the nation for its percentage of vanity plates, according to a recent survey done by the American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators and Stefan Lonce, author of “LCNS2ROM – License to Roam: Vanity License Plates and the Stories They Tell.” Virginia ranks first, with just over 16 percent.

Why are people in Maine more enamored with vanity plates than, say, people in Texas, where only .5 percent of vehicles carry one?

Some Mainers say it’s the price – vanity plates cost $15 a year here, not a huge sum to declare your love for the Red Sox, your kids or your job with every mile. Some Mainers credit their Yankee independent streak, the need to stand apart from the crowd.

Others suggest Mainers might just be more ingenious than people in other states.

“We come up with creative ways to make ourselves laugh,” Sherwood said.

Whatever the reason, Maine drivers love their vanity plates. According to the Maine Bureau of Motor Vehicles, professions (RU2020 for an optometrist), names (STOWEL) and sports references (2004 SOX) are among the most requested, with nearly every conceivable Red Sox combination now taken. Phrases, quips and jokes are also popular.

“It’s about the meaning behind it. Every plate has a meaning,” said Robbie Bissonette, whose vanity plates have ranged from NOVA DOS (Nova dose) on a 1970 Chevy Nova to TYRUSKD (Toys R Us kid) on his Chevy Suburban.

Bissonette and his father, Geary, have collected vanity plates for years, getting some from friends and some from their own vehicles. The plates – including NOMOMNY (no more money), UDREAMN (you dreaming) and LQQKUUP (look up) – now cover the walls of Geary Bissonette’s Auburn garage.

Robbie Bissonette loves trying to squeeze his favorite phrases into seven characters or less. In fact, Bissonette, who builds and repairs cars in his spare time, sometimes registers cars he has no intention of driving just so he can create another plate.

“It’s all about the plate,” said Bissonette, who figures he’s gotten at least 15 different vanity plates since he got his first one in 1995. “It’s a statement.”

Even without going to the extreme of registering extra cars, Darlene Thomas has owned as many – if not more – vanity plates as Bissonette. She and her husband first got personalized plates in 1989 when they were dating. His: DAR-SAM. Hers: SAM-DAR.

“It looked really cool when they were parked next to each other,” she said.

After that, it was SAMYIII for the couple’s newborn son and KNZIMAE (Kenzie Mae) for their newborn daughter. Then there was a stint with FLWRPWR (flower power) and L8WHOME (late, who me?). Now it’s FURYLIL in honor of the family’s new beagle pups, Fury and Lil.

“I usually change it to whatever is going on in my life,” Thomas said.

Eighteen years. A different plate every year.

“People say ‘Oh, you get a new car?’ No, just a new plate,” she said. “It’s just fun.”

THXPOP

Others are more sentimental about their plates. They find one or two perfect ones – plates that shout out to a team, honor a family member or offer a sly nod to a favorite hobby – and they stick with them.

Aleta Rioux has had POLARIS and IGO4SNO on her vehicles. An avid snowmobiler, the plates allow her to share her passion with, well, everyone.

“You see people nod or give you a thumbs up. You get people who share the same interest as you,” she said. “It’s a conversation piece.”

Steve Yenco got T2R9 to declare his favorite spot on earth: Township 2, Range 9, the southern entrance to Baxter State Park.

“Some people guess it,” he said. “Others have no idea at all.”

Gloria and Glyde McAllister put BOTH-R on their veterans’ license plate. They each served in the Army and wanted to honor that duel service. BOTH-R veterans.

As with Yenco’s plate, some people understand what the plate means and some people don’t.

“They say ‘Bother? Why would you put bother on your plate?'” Gloria McAllister said.

To some Mainers, a personalized plate is a way to show their love.

Evelyn B. Piper-Keene got her WILLO plate 12 years ago to honor her cat. Willow the cat died last year, but her name plate remains on Piper-Keene’s car.

“I’m going to keep WILLO as long as I’m around,” she said.

Michelle Michaud got her plate THXPOP because she wanted a unique way to say “thank you” to her grandfather, who made her a generous deal for his Jeep when she needed a new car. He died a year ago, but not before he got a chance to see the plate.

“He was really so proud,” she said. “It’s been a nice way to remember him and think about him every day when I get in the car.”

Sheryl Peavy and Matthew Emmons, who Peavy calls her “significant other,” wanted a way to both show their commitment to each other and their favorite sports teams. Forget matching jerseys. Think vanity plates.

It took them a week to come up with a pair of plates that both complemented each other and made sense. Finally, using the BMV’s vanity plate search Web site, they hit on ASOXFAN for him and APATFAN for her.

“It’s our way of committing. It’s a relationship thing,” Peavy said “It’s accepting each other.”

STUD

Not every plate request is so G-rated.

In order to get a vanity plate, Mainers must request them through the BMV. If someone wants a message that’s obscene, racist, advocates violence or mentions illegal drugs, certain body parts or a sex act, the BMV denies it. Because people can be wily in their requests – making a plate look innocuous on first glance – the BMV is careful about what it approves.

“A real person looks at each and every one of these,” said Garry Hinkley, director of vehicle services for the BMV. “We run them through the urban dictionary. Sometimes we hold them up to a mirror.”

With help from other states, the bureau has developed a list of over 6,000 “unavailable plates.” Some are explicitly raunchy. Others – like STUD and TUSHEE – are tame by today’s standards.

Because some of those plates were banned two or three decades ago, Hinkley said, “These days we’re more likely to remove them from the list than ban them.”

Drivers can ask that a banned plate be reconsidered by e-mailing the BMV.

In some cases, however, vanity plate owners take pains to create a cute, creative, entirely benign message, only to have it misinterpreted by other drivers. Bonnie Hersey, for example, got the plate HOTCHILD in honor of her favorite song “Hot Child in the City” by Nick Gilder.

Most people didn’t think of the song when they saw it.

“They would say ‘Do you have a hot child? Are you a hot child?'” Hersey said. “You should have seen the looks I got.”

She finally dumped the plate in 2004.

Cindy O’Connor thought about the ramifications when she went hunting for an available Red Sox vanity plate. She decided early on not to abbreviate Sox.

SX, she figured, could be too easily misconstrued.

“I thought ‘I don’t want people following me home,'” she said.

O’Connor ended up with NSOXK8D (insoxicated).

The BMV does get complaints about plates once in a while. Workers can pull plates if they find an obscene message has gotten through. But if the plate isn’t blatant and it’s already approved and on the road, workers try to give the owner the benefit of the doubt.

One recently challenged plate read FTW&U2.

“We decided it stands for ‘free the world,'” Hinkley said.