As is well documented in William Safire's bestselling "On E-Language" (available exclusively by digital download on Fatbrain.com), the whole e-naming craze began with the term e-mail -- Al Gore's time-saving contraction for electronic mail, a widely used application of the Internet he invented.

Gore's convention quickly gained popularity, becoming, as some cybercommentators have noted, an e-clichi. As Alan Greenspan grappled with the shift from retail to e-tail, companies, products and Web sites sporting the e-convention became legion (and insufferable): not just iUniverse.com and E-Loan.com, but Emu.com and E-Mew.com and on and e-on. In no time, the trend spiraled off the Net and into "real life" with the e-naming of babies.

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