Post #330019 by Cammo on Mon, Sep 3, 2007 10:19 PM

Believe it or not, the origins of the name are sort of mysterious;

"Introduced on July 5, 1937, the name "Spam" was chosen in the 1930s when the product, whose original name was far less memorable (Hormel Spiced Ham), began to lose market share. The name was chosen from multiple entries in a naming contest. A Hormel official once stated that the original meaning of the name Spam was "Shoulder of Pork and hAM". According to writer Marguerite Patten in Spam – The Cookbook, the name was suggested by Kenneth Daigneau, an actor and the brother of a Hormel vice president. At one time, the official explanation may have been that the name was a syllabic abbreviation of "SPiced hAM", but on their official website, Hormel denies this and states that "Spam is just that. Spam." The fact that the originator was given a $100 prize for coming up with the name, however, still appears on the site's Spam FAQs.

Many jocular backronyms have been devised, such as "Something Posing As Meat." "Special Purpose Army Meat" has been suggested as another apocryphal backronym referring to the product's WWII roots."

SPAM by any other name...