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For some reason, last night I had an obsession with finding out what info is coded in my drivers license and how the number is determined. I ended up stumbling across this super interesting site. http://www.highprogrammer.com/alan/numbers/dl_us_shared.html

On the site they have an applet for inputing ID# and getting info, and one for inputing info and generating ID#. It works both ways, and is very cool. I generated my brother's id# last night and called him up to double check. And it was the real deal. Its kinda scary.

Basically there are 4 parts to IL drivers license numbers. It is of the form SSSS-FFFY-YDDD

Didn About 't The Know Drive Drive thru Things You 10 Fast Food thru Didn 10 't The Fast Food Drive About Know You thru Things Drive thru The first chunk of numbers is the soundex coding of your last name.

The Soundex code for a name consists of a letter followed by three digits: the letter is the first letter of the name, and the digits encode the remaining consonants. Similar sounding consonants share the same digit so, for example, the labials B, F, P, and V are each encoded as 1. Vowels can affect the coding, but are not coded themselves except as the first letter. However if "h" or "w" separate two consonants that have the same soundex code, the consonant to the right of the vowel is not coded.

The correct value can be found as follows:

1. If "h", "w" separate two consonants with the same soundex code, change consonants to right of the vowel into "h" until they have the same soundex code
2. Replace consonants with digits as follows (but do not change the first letter):
* b, f, p, v => 1
* c, g, j, k, q, s, x, z => 2
* d, t => 3
* l => 4
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* m, n => 5
* r => 6
3. Collapse adjacent identical digits into a single digit of that value.
4. Remove all non-digits after the first letter.
5. Return the starting letter and the first three remaining digits. If needed, append zeroes to make it a letter and three digits.

Using this algorithm, both "Robert" and "Rupert" return the same string "R163" while "Rubin" yields "R150". "Ashcraft" yields "A261".

The next group of numbers is based on your first name and your middle initial. To determine what your FFF number will be you must refer to the charts:

Name Code Name Code Name Code
Albert 20 Frank 260 Marvin 580
Alice 20 George 300 Mary 580
Ann 40 Grace 300 Melvin 600
Anna 40 Harold 340 Mildred 600
Anne 40 Harriet 340 Patricia 680
Annie 40 Harry 360 Paul 680
Arthur 40 Hazel 360 Richard 740
Bernard 80 Helen 380 Robert 760
Bette 80 Henry 380 Ruby 740
Bettie 80 James 440 Ruth 760
Betty 80 Jane 440 Thelma 820
Carl 120 Jayne 440 Thomas 820
Catherine 120 Jean 460 Walter 900
Charles 140 Joan 480 Wanda 900
Dorthy 180 John 460 William 920
Edward 220 Joseph 480 Wilma 920
Elizabeth 220 Margaret 560
Florence 260 Martin 560
Donald 180
Clara 140

About Things thru 10 Didn Drive Fast Know thru You 't Food The Drive If you fail to find your name, look up your first initial on this table:

Initial Code Initial Code Initial Code Initial Code
A 0 H 320 O 640 V 860
B 60 I 400 P 660 W 880
C 100 J 420 Q 700 X 940
D 160 K 500 R 720 Y 960
E 200 L 520 S 780 Z 980
F 240 M 540 T 800
G 280 N 620 U 840

Now look up your middle initial on this table:

Initial Code Initial Code Initial Code Initial Code
A 1 H 8 O 14 V 18
B 2 I 9 P 15 W 19
C 3 J 10 Q 15 X 19
D 4 K 11 R 16 Y 19
E 5 L 12 S 17 Z 19
F 6 M 13 T 18
G 7 N 14 U 18

(Its kinda hard to see because I copied and pasted it, but check out the link above to see it more clearly.

For example, if your name is robert, you look at the first table to see that robert = 760. If robert had a middle initial F, then he would add 760+6 (which is F's value on the 3rd table). So Robert F.'s FFF number will be 766.

This one is easy and the most obvious, it is simply the last to digits of the year you were born. Example: Robert F. was born in 1977, then his YY=77

This one is determine by the sex and the month and day of birth. The formula for IL is:

(MM-1)*31+DD +(600 if female, 0 if male)

For example Robert F was born April 3 1977, and is male. Then since april=04 We would compute:
(04-1)*31+03+0 = 93+3 = 96. So his DDD number is 096.

By soundex conventions "Ashcraft" yields "A261".

So we piece together A261-7667-7096

The answer for IL is yes, however in other states they utilize check digits.

This was awesome! I can't believe two people can have the same drivers license number!

I'd always wondered how they came about drivers license numbers and pretty cool to see it works! I'm just curious how they came up with that chart of names. Mine was one of the ones listed for first names and just found it odd that there seemed to be uncommon names listed.

This is really neat. Luckily, big brother has not made it so easy for SSN. Here is the info from the wikipedia page:

The Social Security number is a nine-digit number in the format "AAA-GG-SSSS". The number is divided into three parts.

The Area Number, the first three digits, is assigned by the geographical region. Prior to 1973, cards were issued in local Social Security offices around the country and the Area Number represented the office code in which the card was issued. This did not necessarily have to be in the area where the applicant lived, since a person could apply for their card in any Social Security office. Since 1973, when SSA began assigning SSNs and issuing cards centrally from Baltimore, the area number assigned has been based on the ZIP code in the mailing address provided on the application for the original Social Security card. The applicant's mailing address does not have to be the same as their place of residence. Thus, the Area Number does not necessarily represent the State of residence of the applicant, neither prior to 1973, nor since.

Generally, numbers were assigned beginning in the northeast and moving south and westward, so that people on the east coast had the lowest numbers and those on the west coast had the highest numbers. As the areas assigned to a locality are exhausted, new areas from the pool are assigned, so some states have noncontiguous groups of numbers.

Complete list of area number groups from the Social Security Administration

* The middle two digits are the group number. They have no special geographic or data significance but merely serve to break the number into conveniently sized blocks for orderly issuance.

* There is a theory that the two middle digits can be used to identify a person's ethnic background. This is debunked as an urban legend on snopes.com as well as on the Social Security Administration's website.

The group numbers range from 01 to 99. However, they are not assigned in consecutive order. For administrative reasons, group numbers are issued in the following order:

1. ODD numbers from 01 through 09
2. EVEN numbers from 10 through 98
3. EVEN numbers from 02 through 08
4. ODD numbers from 11 through 99

As an example, group number 98 will be issued before 11.

* The last four digits are serial numbers. They represent a straight numerical sequence of digits from 0001-9999 within the group.

The bottom is the wikipedia page was kind of surprising… the death index. Over 85 million people… yikes!

Wow something so simple can be something that you can be amazed by :)

Another example: if you look at your passport (on your information page at the bottom), the last number in the second row is the check digit. The two rows are called a machine readable passport. So, if you input your information incorrectly on an embassy website and they email you, you will be asked for it. Woot! (and whoops!)