I distinguished between vanity plate and personalized plate. Perhaps errornously.
Anyway, here in Germany (which, like the Uk, is in Europe 
) the car loses its registration when it changes owners. Also, if you move to another municipality, you gotta get a new one. One of the reasons is that insurance rates are tied to the region the car is mostly used in.
Anyway, yes, I think it’s possible to choose from the available subset of plate ids, but with patterns like AA-9999 it’s hard to get anything but initials and birthdate. Sometimes bit even that, as often there are only one letter or three digits available. IQ-600 or (in Stuttgart) S-EX 6969 might be possible.
Me, I’m to cheap to spring even 10€ for any
personalization.
