[Dan Day]

The most common explanation for the original Hormel name "Spam" is that it's a contraction of "Spiced Ham", although there is some dispute about whether this explanation comes straight from "the source" or not. (Spam is made from a combination of ham and pork shoulder.)

In any case, it's clear the name was purposely a rhyme of "ham" in order to be more appealing, whether or not the "SP" part of the name means anything.

As for the "internet spam", that comes from the Monty Python skit where a man goes into a restaurant and finds that every damned item on the menu has (Hormel's) Spam in it. While reading the menu, the word "Spam" comes up pretty much every other word -- much like wading through your incoming email and finding the unsolicited mail outnumbering the "real" mail. Also in the skit the patrons keep singing a song that goes, "Spam, Spam, Spam... Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam...", which also mimics the feel of an unending stream of unsolicited email arriving in your inbox.

[blam]

In the latter days of WW2, the Soviet army survived on SPAM. (A gift from us, of course)

[alphadog]

That picture gives me a flashback to Y2K