Spam Names

When I was working in the archives, I was always coming across old 19th century gentlemen's names like "Norman K. Finletter" and "Albion J. Tomorrow." I made careful note of them because they reminded me a great deal of the names I find daily caught in my spam filter. Names like "Haywood Huggard" or "Erebus Warnick." But lately I find my spamming friends have abandoned their usually hilarious choices (e.g. "Spaghetti T. Joyride," "Probiotic L. Moon") for actual, sensible names:

Lenore Proctor
Reva Christine
Amaryllis Seamons
Mercedes Hobbs
Augustina
Adela
Cecelia
Angelia
Claribel

I wonder whether spammers aren't digging up ideas from the 1880 census. If not for the inclusion of the interestingly-named Maryland Audie (probably the actual name of some poor 2005 baby), I would have thought I was being CC'ed on somebody's canasta webgroup.


Today I took a trip to the local library, where I picked up a free book entitled "20,001 Names for Baby." I can already tell it's going to be great. Check out the entry for Evangeline:

Evangeline Gk., 'good news.' Derived from the term that came to be used for the Gospels, or the four Old Testament accounts of Christ's life. First used in English by Alfred Tennyson in his 1847 poem, "Evangeline."

Did you know that Tennyson wrote a poem named "Evangeline?" I sure didn't. But then, I also didn't know that the Gospels were in the Old Testament, so I guess I have a lot to learn. Thank you, author Carol McD. Wallace!!