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Spam and Character Names

 
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ScottyDM
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Joined: 12 Feb 2005
Posts: 1142
Location: Colorado Springs, Colorado, USA

PostPosted: Tue Dec 05, 2006 12:31 am    Post subject: Spam and Character Names Reply with quote

Not sure where to put this...

A few months ago I think it was the Old Gray Raccoon who mentioned getting character names from spam e-mails. He said some of those fake names were pretty good. While doing my daily spam deletion, I started thinking about those names...

So I began entering the names into a spreadsheet with first names in column A and last names in column B. I just finished today's name capture and delete the trash routine when I realized I had over 500 names! After a bit of clean up I brought that down to 499. A quick search of my other e-mail accounts turned up a spam mail I'd missed, so I entered that name for an even 500 first + last name pairs.

This was too fun not to share. So if you'd like a tab delimited, alphabetized list of names, the file is at: http://www.skunkwks.com/web/hidden/names/500names.txt

Scotty

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Kantaro wrote:
Almost real enough to be considered non-fiction, if it weren't made up.
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RunningCat
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Joined: 31 May 2005
Posts: 171

PostPosted: Tue Dec 05, 2006 2:07 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

That is pretty cool if nothing else, I have always had trouble coming up with names for characters in my stories. I am wondering if I could use the list to help me out every now and again?

RunningCat
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ScottyDM
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Joined: 12 Feb 2005
Posts: 1142
Location: Colorado Springs, Colorado, USA

PostPosted: Tue Dec 05, 2006 3:43 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Absofreakinlutely!

If I didn't want someone to use it, I would not have made it public. I suspect the spammers use automatic name generator software. I was surprised at how little duplication there is.

I can't speak for other countries, but here in the USA it is not possible to copyright such a list. We cannot copyright facts or lists of information or something like a phone book (not the bulk of it anyway), and I was surprised to learn you cannot copyright your special family recipe for lasagna. Toss in a photo of lasagna and a funny story about uncle Louie and you can copyright the page with the recipe, but the listing of ingredients and basic instructions cannot be copyrighted. It makes sense. Think of the nightmares that would result of people could copyright this kind of stuff.

Scotty

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Kantaro wrote:
Almost real enough to be considered non-fiction, if it weren't made up.
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