Author Ian Fleming wanted his spy hero to have the most 'dull' and 'unromantic' name possible. He found it on the cover of a bird-watching book titled 'Birds of the West Indies,' written by a real-life American ornithologist named James Bond. Fleming, an avid bird-watcher himself while living in Jamaica, felt the name was 'short, unromantic, Anglo-Saxon and yet very masculine.' The real James Bond and his wife eventually visited Fleming in 1964; Fleming gave him a signed copy of 'You Only Live Twice' inscribed 'To the real James Bond, from the thief of his identity.' As for the 007 code name, it was inspired by the breaking of a German diplomatic code during WWI (the number 0075) and John Dee, an Elizabethan spy who signed his letters to the Queen with '007' to represent her eyes.