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Where did James Bond get his famous name and number
from?
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James Bond's Name
23rd April 2004
Ian Fleming wished to give the creation
that would become the most enduring cultural icon of the
late twentieth century
a plain, simple name. According to Fleming "One of my bibles
out here is James Bond's birds of the West Indies... James
Bond sounded perfect".
Sometime later, the real James
Bond was passing through customs (as Terence James Bond)
and
was faced with continuous jokes about Beretta's and,
more recently, Walther's.
There has been much conjecture about Bond's name and
number. What is he Bonded to? Queen and Country?
The origin
of the number 007 is as clear-cut as the name James Bond.
John Dee, the 'eyes of Queen Elizabeth I, was known by
this number when working for English intelligence against
the Spanish.
Right: The cover of "Birds of the West Indies" |
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 UK
- MI6 Price: £11.35
USA
- MI6 Price: $16.10 |
Martin Bond |
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The motto 'non sufficit orbis', first mentioned
in "On Her Majesty's Secret Service" owes something
to a family in Dorset, rather than to the Bond street that
Bond suggested in the film.
Martin Bond, of the Dorset clan of Bond's,
realised as soon as "The World Is Not Enough" came
out that it was his motto and crest that were being used,
although the word
order of the motto and the crest itself both bear slight
differences to 007's own.
He says "I have always thought
it a meaningless motto, but when I saw the film title I
immediately thought it must have a connection to us."
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Therefore Bond's supposed parents, Andrew Bond and Monique
Delacroix his Swiss wife, must be part of an elaborate
cover, although Martin of Wareham near Poole admits, "I can't
find any trace of him in the family history but he must be
one of ours..."
"He must have slipped through, but now he
is claiming relationship to us, we will happily accept
that... It makes for an entertaining addition to the family."
"I do
not wish to be disrespectful to my ancestors or my cousins,
but we Dorset Bonds have always been a pretty drab bunch,
although always respectable".
Right: The Bond family crest and motto |
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Of course, there are many other James Bond's around, although
for the vast majority of them, the endless jokes about the name
must get tiresome. But Timothy Dalton met a James Bond who was
close to his namesake's secret agent status, because when filming
in Gibraltar for "The Living Daylights" he
met an Royal Artillery Captain with the same name as 007, who
and also had the same rank as John Gardner's 007.
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