What is up with those oval decals with cryptic acronyms?

They were originally used to indicate what country the car was from (not where it was built, but where it was registered). I think Ireland, was IRL, or something like that, for example, but recently the Boston Globe had a little mini-article about them, and people are indeed creating their own acronyms for thmaybe yours is Office of Bureaucratic Langour, or an homage to the Beatles "Ohbladi, Ohblada".

I searched before I posted but didn't come up with anything -- just tried again, and this is a sample, exactly what they look like:



That site says that they're place names. Why is Columbus swimming with stickers from all kinds of different places, though?

OH! Thanks, username!

I always figured they were parking stickers....

DrewDad, you should put a FSM sticker on yours.

I've considered it, but I really dislike the idea of adorning my car.

Anyone who sticks a sticker on to a $20K item is stupid.

Some say it means "Found On Road Dead"

There's an oval sticker here, MC. Evidently it stands for "more cowbell".

In Europe they are mandatory to specify the country

A = Austria
B = Belgium
CH = Switzerland
D = Germany
E = Spain
F = France
G = Greece and so on....

Here's one I sport.

OK, a picture is emerging. Something like:

1.) All cars in Europe have them.
2.) People here started doing it as a "tone" thing -- ooh, look how European I am.
3.) There were enough #2 people that it reached critical mass and there started to be parodies/ random acronyms. (The site I found where I got the "AMI" image allowed you to order custom decals.)
4.) It's mutated from there like the take-offs of "It's a Jeep thing, you wouldn't understand" or Jesus fish/ Darwin fish/ pirate fish (FSM) decals.

That about right?

I found more. From CafePress:



There's even a combination with one of the #4 things!

They used to be required in Europe so law enforcement could quickly identify the country of the car's origin. Italy is IT, france is FR, Denmark is DN, Great Britain is GB, Germany is DE, etc. The fad kinda caught on in the US and some US drivers put those stickers on their cars to indicate their favorite European country, or their family heritage, or just to be a loser.

In recent years, the fad has extended to tourist spots. The ones you see that say OBX stand for Outer Banks, NC. There are some religious ones that say JC, and some that say HMP for hemp or pot.

Yes sozobe, your assumtion is quite right.
We have a beach community here where it's still hippie-like
and residents proudly wear a "OB" (for Ocean Beach) sign on their cars.