The Portland Bureau of Transportation (PBOT) and Portland City Elections invites the public to submit creative names for five more snowplows in the city's second annual snowplow naming contest. Last year, for the first ever contest, PBOT received name submissions from over 4,000 people. Then, 16,000 Portlanders voted on their top five favorite names (out of twenty) using ranked-choice voting.

PBOT has 56 snowplows. After welcoming Beverly Clear-y, Salt & Thaw, Brrrnside, Plowy McPlowface, and The Big Snowplowski, there are 51 left to name! This year, with the help of the public, the PBOT will name five more.

Today, PBOT opened the contest form. Everyone is invited to dream up their punniest, most creative, Portland-y, Pacific Northwest-proud names they can think of. You’ll be prompted to provide your name, contact information, and your suggestion for a snowplow name. Have more than one idea? Feel free to submit multiple entries!

When you submit a name, you agree to the City of Portland using your entry in a public and official capacity.

We will not accept names with inappropriate language, swear words, or slurs. Find more guidelines for the contest on our website.

After submitting your snowplow name(s), come back on Jan. 12 to vote on the top 20 using ranked-choice voting. The top five snowplow names will be chosen as winners and announced in February.

Dec. 18 – Jan. 5: The public submits snowplow name ideas with this form (form closes at 5 p.m., Jan. 5, 2026).
Jan. 6 - 9: PBOT staff select the top 20 snowplow names.
Jan. 12 - Jan. 21: Portlanders use ranked-choice voting to vote on their favorite names. Visit the 2025-26 contest page on Jan. 12 to vote. Voting ends at 5 p.m., Jan. 21.
Week of Feb. 2: Top five snowplow names are announced determined by multi-winner ranked-choice voting.

Mel Taylor