Along with any claim of hauntings, royal patronage or extreme antiquity, the story behind an unusual name is one part of a pub’s offering that shouldn’t always be relied on for its copper-bottomed scientific soundness.

Many such stories are indeed solidly sourced, but pubs attract all manner of lively imaginings, and some names are about as authentic as WKD Blue. You can waste many promising evenings pondering whether Charles II did evade capture in this pub by dressing as a green man or if that pickle jar did once contain an actual Turk’s head.

But pub names serve a higher purpose than record-keeping. They are a testament to the nature of the pub as a focus for creativity, wit and yarn-spinning, and the people and events they memorialise underline the way in which pubs are entwined with history, or at least with the inventiveness of the locals.

Whether their sources have been rigorously traced or whether they were concocted in that moment of high excitement between last orders and the firm push towards the door, pub names can be intriguing and, in a way that is part of the appeal of the British pub, beautiful.

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Take The Case is Altered. Based on a historical moment or not, it’s a name to get you thinking, as is the Blazing Donkey. And what mysteries produced the Cow and Snuffers, the Young Vanish and the Labouring Boys? Was it a naturalist’s observation that resulted in the Sociable Plover, which landlord decided to appeal to punters through the Happy Medium, and who tried to outpun all of pubdom with the Muscular Arms?

And how could anyone not admire the simple earthiness of the Bunch of Carrots? The Jolly Taxpayer is a high point of pub fiction, and luckily the Chemic Tavern dispenses better drinks than its name implies. And then there’s Stalybridge in Manchester, site of the succinctly but venerably named Q and the Old Thirteenth Cheshire Astley Volunteer Rifleman Corps Inn.

A pub’s name is an important part of the whole picture, but not the defining one. A good pub is a delightful thing that should be cherished and celebrated. That done, you can call it what you like.

The Bag of Nails Some people have argued that this pub name comes from a hoary old joke where a man walks into a pub and asks for a room. The sign says that it’s one shilling for the night or sixpence if you make your own bed. When the man chooses to make his own bed, the landlord gives him some wood and a bag of nails . . .

The Bag of Nails sounds a very utilitarian name for a pub but its origins could come from classical mythology. The name (try saying it fast a couple of times) could well be a corruption of bacchanals, which were the celebrations of the Roman god of wine.

Bacchus wasn’t only the god of wine, he was also the god of ritual madness — and his rites were characterised by maniacal dancing to the sound of loud music, in which his followers, who were mostly female, whirled around, screamed, became drunk and incited one another to greater and greater ecstasy.

This theory works less well when looking at the history of a specific pub, the Bag of Nails, close to Buckingham Palace. The pub was converted from an ironmonger’s or blacksmith’s shop; the name is thought to have evolved from the old ironmonger’s sign, a bag of nails.

The Sandboys In The Old Curiosity Shop (1841), Dickens describes an inn called the Jolly Sandboys. Dickens is known to have spent time in Bristol, where the town’s landlords would spread sand on the floor of their inns to soak up any spillages. The city’s Redcliffe Caves were known for their fine sand , which was sprinkled on floors. Innkeepers would send young lads off into the caves to provide them with a regular supply.

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