Techcrunch just dug up Twitter’s list of 370 banned passwords — the ones so painfully obvious that every newbie uses them. Number 1 on the list is “111111,” for example, and #19 is “abc123.” It’s alphabetical, so the all-time classic — “password” — is at #241.
Certain famous names make the list, which must be some kind of critical indicator of global consciousness. So here they are, the people and/or characters we think about enough to make them our not-very-smart passwords.
39) Arthur and 48) Barney. If you’re six years old and choosing your first password, where do you turn?
50) Batman and 318) Superman. These two also ranked highly on the list of treehouse passwords of the 1960s.
52) Beavis and 76) Butthead. Congratulations, Mike Judge.
77) Calvin and 301) Snoopy. Score two for the funny pages.
88) Chelsea. This one’s a “maybe.” Personal names are popular, but they tend to be hot names: jeremy, jessica, etc. Major cities are also hot (boston, chicago, london) but with all due respect to Joni Mitchell, Chelsea is not that famous a New York neighborhood. This could be British football fans. But in honor of her engagement, we’re giving this one to Chelsea Clinton.
122) Einstein. A classic.
137) Gandalf is the only “Lord of the Rings” character to make the list. Frodo and Sam and Merry are too short (in more ways than one). Still, shouldn’t Legolas and Aragorn and Bilbo123 be in the mix?
162) Iceman and 203) Maverick and 208) Merlin and 335) Topgun. What can you say? Tom Cruise can open movies *and* passwords.
358) Winston. We have a statesman! (As long as you ignore #197, marlboro.)
211) Mickey. Boring, but not surprising.
278) Rosebud. Somewhere Orson Welles is smiling — or possibly grimacing. Still, an impressive showing. Are there really that many Citizen Kane fans out there?
287) Scooby. As ever, the stoner’s delight.
From the Who2 blog:
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