The protagonist of The X-Files, broadcast on the FOX network, is named Fox Mulder.

Chris Carter originally claimed he named him after a childhood friend named Fox. He later admitted that he MADE UP THE CHILDHOOD FRIEND STORY.

But still insists the name has absolutely nothing to do with the FOX network.

Extraordinary.

2. METAL GEAR SOLID

The protagonist is named SOLID SNAKE.

The previous two games were called Metal Gear and Metal Gear 2.

The third is called Metal Gear Solid.

Kojima has explained that SOLID refers to three-dimensional polygons, cubic structures, mathematical exponentiation, and even surpassing rival developer Square.

NOT simply the fact that the main character is named Solid Snake.

Except in a 1999 interview he explicitly acknowledged Solid Snake as one of the title's meanings.

An increasingly abstruse exercise in retrospective etymology.

3. XBOX 360

Microsoft originally explained the 360 as representing the gamer at the center of a comprehensive entertainment experience.

Years later, executive Robbie Bach acknowledged the rather more pedestrian concern that calling it Xbox 2 would make it look inferior to PlayStation 3.

So instead we got an elaborate theory of circular geometry.

4. FINAL FANTASY

The legendary explanation is that Square was facing bankruptcy and this was its FINAL FANTASY.

Sakaguchi subsequently explained that they wanted something abbreviated FF, originally contemplated Fighting Fantasy, and changed the name.

Apparently the dramatic corporate near-death narrative was largely mythology.

5. WINDOWS NT

New Technology.

An impressive name for Microsoft's next-generation operating system.

Except the original NT designation came from N-Ten, the code name of the Intel i860 processor targeted during early development.

New Technology was effectively a backronym.

6. LUCY IN THE SKY WITH DIAMONDS

LSD.

John Lennon insisted the title originated with his son's drawing, which actually existed, so this one might genuinely be a coincidence.

Nevertheless, millions of people apparently remain unwilling to believe that a psychedelic Beatles song with the initials LSD was not deliberately named after LSD.

I find this entire phenomenon fascinating.

People devise names for perfectly ordinary reasons, then construct increasingly sophisticated intellectual frameworks to explain them. Sometimes the popular explanation is invented. Sometimes the denial is invented. Sometimes the obvious explanation really is wrong.

I fully intend to explain that Super Mario 32X was NOT named after Super Mario or the Sega 32X, but rather represents a three-dimensional critique of Nintendo's vertically integrated software development paradigm.

The State of Authorial Etymology Is Grim, but I am the Reprieve.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5916142&forum_id=2#50213707)