U SD IT: Virginians Make a Statement With Vanity Plates

Some are apropos to the point of being cliche: GR8 SHPR parked at the Leesburg Corner Premium Outlets, for instance.

And some are just impossible to crack unless you know the person. It could be that Middleburg resident Britton Condon has the stumper of all time: FITASC.

Any guesses?

Perhaps there's a French sportsman out there?

Okay, time's up.

FITASC is the abbreviation for the Federation Internationale de Tir Aux Armes Sportives de Chasse, which, as any clay shooter knows, is a federation that runs an obscure and difficult type of shooting discipline.

Why put something on a plate that no one can comprehend?

"I just did it for myself," Condon said. "It just reminds me of it, that's all.

"No one has any idea what it is," he added.

Uh, yeah.

The need to express herself also had a lot to do with Jessica Echevarria's plate -- ECHVRIA -- which is a shortened version of her last name and, to her, a "declaration of pride."

She chose it after her mother divorced a man whose last name was Reyes, and Echevarria dropped Reyes as one of her three names. She wanted to shout out to the world that her last name was Echevarria and only Echevarria.

But only for a little while, she said. Pretty soon, she wants to switch her plate to TRTHHLZ. Too many people say the truth hurts, she said, and it's time to spread the message that the truth heals.

"People are more expressive these days," she said, explaining her desire to speak via license plate. She noted another motivation, too. "A lot of us are attention hogs," she said. "They're not called vanity plates for nothing."