"007" is one of the most-recognizable numbers in the world, and central to the  James Bond mystique.

"Casino Royale," the first of Daniel Craig's James Bond movie, even begins with a scene explaining how an agent achieves the vaunted "double-O" status.

But how did Ian Fleming come up with  "007" and that "double-O" status in the first place?

MGM/Universal Pictures/EON

Some Fleming enthusiasts insist the world’s most-famous code number was inspired by 16th-Century English explorer/spy John Dee.

Others point to the 007 British bus line, or a 1897 Rudyard Kipling story about an American locomotive entitled “.007,” a World War I code, or part of the telephone number of Ian Fleming’s first literary agent.

There’s just one trouble with these theories. They’re balderdash.

Now, with Craig's fifth and final James Bond movie, I thought you might enjoy my article for literary007.com. It spills all the beans about 007.

You can read it here.

Above: The beginning of ".007," a short story by Rudyard Kipling in Collier's magazine; the legendary John Dee, and an editorial cartoon about the Zimmerman code.