A few people have asked why I named this blog The Volokh Conspiracy. The blog began as The Volokh Brothers, but when I realized I wanted us to grow, I had to change the last word. I thought "The Volokh Gang," but then I thought some people might see it as derivative of the then-running political talk show The Capital Gang. I thought "The Volokh Group," but then I thought some people might see it as derivative of The McLaughlin Group. I also realized that the names were derivative of those shows, so I consciously looked for something different.

Conspiracy struck me as unusual, memorable, and a little (OK, only a little) amusing. First, I liked the incongruity of a conspiracy actually publicly announcing itself as a conspiracy. Second, it echoed "The Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy," to which we belong, and also "The Jewish Conspiracy," to which most of the charter members and since then most of the more recent members have also belonged -- but at the same time, as a self-chosen label, it also slightly mocked the term (just as many conservatives' embrace of the label "The Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy" slightly mocks the term, which was apparently originally coined by Hillary Clinton).

So that's how it came about, and I think it's worked well for us. And, hey, no prosecutors have started investigating us yet under 18 U.S.C. § 371 -- at least to our knowledge.