You guys in normal countries are lucky, you can get a custom reg.
The closest we can get is just to reserve a sequential number, and only after it is reached with vehicles registered, and the rest of the reg is fixed.
E.g. here the format is fixed at YY-C-1234, where YY is year, C is County, and 1234 is the sequential number. E.g. 22-W-137 is the 137th car sold in Waterford in 2022.
I too bought a reserved reg BEFORE I got the bike - I had to wait a period of 6 months to go from learner to full licensed, and this was due to be my birthday.too.
10-R-111 was the number i paid €1000 to reserve, for my '10 Roadster. I had to fake an address in the county R and all!
Then on the day of getting my bike, the system upgraded from paper to computer, and computer would not allow me to use a reserved reg for a previous year (i bought the bike used in 2011).
It's a really sad story and it still stings. This "would" have been the reg below. Sorry to hijack your thread!
/rant over