# Why was telephone exchange names ever a thing? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 11, 2013, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-telephone-exchange-names-ever-a-thing/660747 "2013-06-11T19:52:18Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2013, 6:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-telephone-exchange-names-ever-a-thing/660747/41 "2013-06-12T06:08:10Z")
> [@hajario](#): > > I don’t personally remember people giving out numbers that way but I do remember my Mom’s phone book had my pediatrician’s phone number written in it that way. He started with OL which was OLympic and his office was on Olympic Blvd. Come to think of it there was a VEnice exchange too. But Venice and Olympic are long boulevards so the names don’t tell you all that much by way of location. I think I can safely say that the OLympic exchange could not have been set up before the name was changed from 10th Street, i.e. 1932. ---
**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2013, 6:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-telephone-exchange-names-ever-a-thing/660747/42 "2013-06-12T06:16:14Z")
Venice is also an area of town as you know. (I graduated from Venice High School which is on Venice Blvd but not in Venice) ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2013, 6:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-telephone-exchange-names-ever-a-thing/660747/43 "2013-06-12T06:19:34Z")
> [@Voyager](#): > > Exchanges were originally run by one switch, so it was possible that a real old one could only handle 1,000 numbers. In certain places you could call within your exchange by only dialing five numbers also, like you can in most pbx systems. UCSD was like that in the late 1970s. IIRC all the phones on campus had the same three digit prefix, and you could dial any other number on campus using just the last four digits, whether it was an office or somebody’s dorm room. I don’t remember for sure how it worked in the dorms, though. I think the only given was a pay phone on the first floor; if you wanted a phone in your room or on your suite floor you’d just order it from the phone company yourself and not have to go through the housing office. Most people didn’t have their own phones however, so we’d more typically just knock on someone’s door if we wanted to talk to them. Typically two people shared a room and one phone between them, and there wasn’t a great deal of privacy. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2013, 6:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-telephone-exchange-names-ever-a-thing/660747/44 "2013-06-12T06:47:19Z")
> [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](#): > > I remember those! **Is this actually the original meaning of the word ‘pog’?** About 20 years ago collecting pogs was a huge fad among kids in primary school age, although what they collected had various colors and designs. They were about that size, though. No, I just used “pog” there because that’s what they look like to me. Pogs were originally the little cardboard circles that were stuck in the tops of glass milk or juice bottles. Then kids started collecting them and playing some kind of tiddlywinks-like game with them. Then it got commercialized, so you could buy pre-packaged sets of colorful pogs with various pictures on them. This [Wiki page](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pogs) gives a bit of the history of the term. See also [this Wiki page](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/POG_%28drink%29) for more on the earlier usage. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2013, 6:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-telephone-exchange-names-ever-a-thing/660747/45 "2013-06-12T06:56:11Z")
> [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](#): > > You still see this with some commercial or public service related 800 numbers. Twenty years ago or so I remember seeing PSAs on TV urging drug addicts to dial 800-2 GET HELP. And likewise, the all-in-one customer service number for Medicare is 1-800-MEDICARE Got that? There will be a quiz on Friday. ---
**Author:** ![septimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/septimus/32/410_2.png) [@septimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/septimus)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2013, 7:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-telephone-exchange-names-ever-a-thing/660747/46 "2013-06-12T07:13:13Z")
IBM San Jose’s phone numbers were ‘Cypress X-XXXX’ in the 50’s and 60’s; ‘Cypress’ ended up being used as codename for a DASD project. It is not true that numbers are as easy to memorize as letters used mnemonically. I used to invent mnemonics often. A woman once called me, and mentioned that the call would never have occurred except for my “memorable” (lettered) phone number. Cell-phone memory means I don’t invent such mnemonics anymore, but to demonstrate I just tried it using an arbitrary number in my cell-phone memory. Call NO-BAKE-LEX-1 to get a certain hotel (NO is the country code for Thailand). BAKE-LEX-1 may not seem overly memorable, but is much more so than 8 arbitrary digits. ---
**Author:** ![Colophon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2013, 11:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-telephone-exchange-names-ever-a-thing/660747/47 "2013-06-12T11:10:28Z")
To answer the OP’s main point - of course it was easier to remember, as you didn’t have to convert the letters to numbers, you just dialled the letters, which were there right on the phone. > [@Voyager](#): > > Didn’t have to be as far as Canada. In 1980 I spent at least that much time in a post office in Paris calling all the way to Oxford. (Of course it was France …). Similar stuff - you give the number and waited for a booth. This happened remarkably recently, too. I went on a school trip to Kenya in **1994** , and to call home in England I had to go to the main post office in Nairobi, and pay for a slot of time in a little booth, and have the number connected for me by an operator. Then when we were staying in a hotel on the coast, our inexpensive means of contact with school was for us all to write brief messages onto a sheet of paper and fax it through, where it would be photocopied and distributed to our parents. And this was less than 20 years ago! Just 8 years after this, I took a trip round the world and was able to call or text home instantly and cheaply from my own mobile phone from almost anywhere, even the remotest beaches in the Pacific. The progress in communications between 1990 and 2000 was absolutely astonishing. ---
**Author:** ![buddha\_david](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ee7513/32.png) [@buddha\_david](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/buddha_david)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2013, 12:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-telephone-exchange-names-ever-a-thing/660747/48 "2013-06-12T12:17:27Z")
The California Highway Patrol still uses the number [ZEnith 1-2000.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_Highway_Patrol#Traditions) And for the life of me, I still can’t figure out how you’re supposed to dial it. ---
**Author:** ![yoyodyne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/a9a28c/32.png) [@yoyodyne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yoyodyne)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2013, 1:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-telephone-exchange-names-ever-a-thing/660747/49 "2013-06-12T13:17:02Z")
> [@hajario](#): > > (I graduated from Venice High School which is on Venice Blvd but not in Venice) [Venice High School](http://www.sarasotacountyschools.net/schools/venicehigh/) is not on Venice Blvd but is in Venice. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2013, 2:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-telephone-exchange-names-ever-a-thing/660747/50 "2013-06-12T14:14:03Z")
> [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](#): > > UCSD was like that in the late 1970s. IIRC all the phones on campus had the same three digit prefix, and you could dial any other number on campus using just the last four digits, whether it was an office or somebody’s dorm room. I don’t remember for sure how it worked in the dorms, though. I think the only given was a pay phone on the first floor; if you wanted a phone in your room or on your suite floor you’d just order it from the phone company yourself and not have to go through the housing office. Most people didn’t have their own phones however, so we’d more typically just knock on someone’s door if we wanted to talk to them. Typically two people shared a room and one phone between them, and there wasn’t a great deal of privacy. You’re going to have to stop following me around. I was at UCSD for a good part of the 80s. You ordered a phone from the phone company when you were in the dorms. The phone number for a given room didn’t change from year to year which caused havoc when long distance services like Sprint came into play. One friend had a hell of a time convincing Sprint that she didn’t have to pay the bill of the woman who had the dorm room the year after her. I think that the four digit dialing inter campus was still there the whole time I was there which ended in 1990 when I got my MS. You had to dial 9 to get an outside line. The radio station radio station was 452-DOPE. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2013, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-telephone-exchange-names-ever-a-thing/660747/51 "2013-06-12T19:36:24Z")
Note that in many small towns, the exchange name was the name of the town. Thus, for us, you had GReenport 7, SOuthold 5, PEconic 7, and SHelter Island 9. That made a lot of sense; it’s a lot easier to remember the name of the village, since you know it already. ---
**Author:** ![Dorjan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dorjan/32/12440_2.png) [@Dorjan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dorjan)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2013, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-telephone-exchange-names-ever-a-thing/660747/52 "2013-06-12T19:43:14Z")
Well the make for very catchy ad jingles! Garfield-1, 2323 Garfield-1, 2323! [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PojTGYazA88‎](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PojTGYazA88%E2%80%8E) ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2013, 9:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-telephone-exchange-names-ever-a-thing/660747/53 "2013-06-12T21:29:11Z")
> [@hajario](#): > > You’re going to have to stop following me around. I was at UCSD for a good part of the 80s. You’ve got that backwards–I was there from 1975 to early 1980 so it’s you who are following me. > [@](#): > > I think that the four digit dialing inter campus was still there the whole time I was there which ended in 1990 when I got my MS. You had to dial 9 to get an outside line. The radio station radio station was 452-DOPE. Oddly enough, about the only number I remember is 452-EDNA, and even then I don’t remember exactly what it was – the student center, perhaps? But the fact that we remember these two numbers suggests strongly that we do remember words more easily than numbers. ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2013, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-telephone-exchange-names-ever-a-thing/660747/54 "2013-06-12T21:33:44Z")
> [@septimus](#): > > Cell-phone memory means I don’t invent such mnemonics anymore, but to demonstrate I just tried it using an arbitrary number in my cell-phone memory. Call > NO-BAKE-LEX-1 > to get a certain hotel (NO is the country code for Thailand). BAKE-LEX-1 may not seem overly memorable, but is much more so than 8 arbitrary digits. I got into the spirit when setting up a Google Voice number for myself. It’s 910-FOR-\*\*\*\* where the last four numbers map to my four initials of my name written out in full. ---
**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2013, 11:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-telephone-exchange-names-ever-a-thing/660747/55 "2013-06-12T23:03:25Z")
> [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](#): > > Oddly enough, about the only number I remember is 452-EDNA, and even then I don’t remember exactly what it was – the student center, perhaps? But the fact that we remember these two numbers suggests strongly that we do remember words more easily than numbers. EDNA! That was the main information number for the student center. They EDNA workers were supposed to be able to answer any question that you had about UCSD. The internet certainly put them out of business. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2013, 11:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-telephone-exchange-names-ever-a-thing/660747/56 "2013-06-12T23:20:08Z")
> [@hajario](#): > > You’re going to have to stop following me around. I was at UCSD for a good part of the 80s. You ordered a phone from the phone company when you were in the dorms. The phone number for a given room didn’t change from year to year which caused havoc when long distance services like Sprint came into play. One friend had a hell of a time convincing Sprint that she didn’t have to pay the bill of the woman who had the dorm room the year after her. MIT in 1970 had two distinct phone systems. There were extensions, which was a basic sort of PBX the offices used, and there was the dorm line, which only went between dorm rooms and had no connectivity to the outside. There was an extension phone in most hallways. You could directly order a regular New England Telephone for your room - which we promptly added many illegal extra phones to. Dorm phones were all dial, of course, and had very powerful solenoids. I used a reel-to-reel deck, and my recording of the end of “A Day in the Life” had someone dialing from next door on it. You could tell who was called by counting the clicks. ---
**Author:** ![An\_Gadai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d6d6ee/32.png) [@An\_Gadai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/An_Gadai)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2013, 12:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-telephone-exchange-names-ever-a-thing/660747/57 "2013-06-13T00:01:10Z")
> [@bob\_2](#): > > I still don’t get how I can pick up this small gizmo abot the size of a fag packet, press a few buttons, and talk to someone on the other side of the world. It doesn’t need a mortgage to pay for the call either. > > I remember, as a young man in London, I took a girl to the post office so that she could call home to Canada. We went to a counter and she filled in a form with the details and paid a load of cash. We then sat waiting until she was called to a kiosk to receive the call. It must have taken a good half hour. In 1971 my folks needed to call from the Republic Of Ireland to Northern Ireland to require about the health of one of their parents. Call took 2-3hrs to connect. They could have driven back in approximately the same amount of time. ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2013, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-telephone-exchange-names-ever-a-thing/660747/58 "2013-06-13T20:34:04Z")
> [@hajario](#): > > EDNA! That was the main information number for the student center. They EDNA workers were supposed to be able to answer any question that you had about UCSD. The internet certainly put them out of business. So there are three known UCSD alumni in this thread? ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2013, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-telephone-exchange-names-ever-a-thing/660747/59 "2013-06-13T20:48:46Z")
> [@Voyager](#): > > MIT in 1970 had two distinct phone systems. There were extensions, which was a basic sort of PBX the offices used, and there was the dorm line, which only went between dorm rooms and had no connectivity to the outside. There was an extension phone in most hallways. You could directly order a regular New England Telephone for your room - which we promptly added many illegal extra phones Were you able to rig up some kind of PBX to enable calling just one of the extra phones? Come to think of it, around that time didn’t MIT have a robust phreaking[sup]1[/sup] community? It wouldn’t surprise me that you and your fellow students were able to – ah –_enhance_ the system to your liking. [sup]1[/sup]Phreaking: Phone freaking, or hacking into phone systems. Popular among some more technically minded students in the 1960s-70s, and the culture of phreaking evolved into computer hacking. ---
**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2013, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-telephone-exchange-names-ever-a-thing/660747/60 "2013-06-13T22:21:18Z")
> [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](#): > > So there are three known UCSD alumni in this thread? Who else besides us? GO TRITONS! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-telephone-exchange-names-ever-a-thing/660747.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-telephone-exchange-names-ever-a-thing/660747.md?page=4)