Oregon family's name deemed offensive — on their license plates

MERLIN, Ore. — A Merlin family has been ordered to turn in the vanity license plates for their cars because the state finds their Dutch name can be interpreted as offensive.

The plates, UDINK1 UDINK2 and UDINK3 are on the vehicles of Mike and Shelly Udink and their son Kalei.

Two of the plates are 5 and 7 years old. One was issued last year.

Last summer Kawika Udink's application for Udink4 was rejected and the state ordered the other three plates returned.

The plates are now invalid and the 90-day temporary registrations sent to the family in June are also likely expired, according to David House, spokesman for the state Driver and Motor Vehicle Services Division.

The plates were deemed offensive by a 10-person DMV panel that approves custom, or "vanity" plates, which cost an extra $80.

House, who serves on the panel, said the reasons were the sexual references that can be associated with the name, which can be treated as a verb.

"DINK has several derogatory meanings," wrote panel member Yvonne Bell. She said it also can be a racial slur, especially toward Vietnamese.

House said the "U" in the front could be construed as "You."

It seems unreal to Mike Udink, whose name is Dutch. He says it is a common name in the Netherlands.

"Since when can a panel dictate whether your name's offensive or not?" asked Udink, a lineman for Pacific Power.

The family wonders why the plates were fine for years, then recalled.

"Somebody pointed it out to us," said House. "We get dozens of requests every day. We can miss things, and we have. Sometimes we let it go and see if we get complaints."

House said the state has the right to censor license plates, because the state owns them. Family names, it appears, are not immune.

"When people drive down the street nobody knows your name," House said.

"We know some people have names that match something. We've also had a lot of references to ecstasy that we've pulled back in the past five years, because it became a nickname for a drug," he said.

Michael Udink's second cousin, Dennis Udink, of Price, Utah, tried to get a rule change allowing family names to be exempt but failed.

The DMV denies requests for any combination of letters and numbers that may be viewed as objectionable, in any language, by use of phonetic, numeric or reverse spelling, or when viewed as a mirror image, or that would alarm or offend a reasonable person, although some howlers have gotten through.

Intimate body parts or sexual or bodily functions are taboo as are references in an alarming or offensive manner to race, color, gender, ethnic heritage, or national origin or to alcohol or drugs or paraphernalia.