“Tradition holds, according to Richard A. Firmage in The Alphabet Abecedarium, that g was invented by a particular Roman: ‘Spurius Ruga, about 230 B.C. (and it appears that he derived some immediate benefit from it).’ Perhaps Ruga was awarded a g to insert into his hame anywhere he wanted. Since spurius in Latin meant ‘spurius’ or ‘false,’ if I had been him I would have slipped it into my first name somewhere. Spurigus or Spurgius. But it’s hard to put ourselves in the shoes of a person who lived that long ago.”