Alice and Bob: A History of the World’s Most Famous Cryptographic Couple (2017)

>there is no evidence to indicate that the movie influenced their naming decision

I'd like to add that the existence of a popular contemporary movie whose title is simply a list of names, half of which are the entirety of the names in question (said movie supposedly being a cultural touchstone for RSA's generation, the Boomers), makes the latter hypothesis the less likely one by default, in my view.

Usually the passive eavesdropper is Eve, while the MITM that actively modifies messages is Mallory (she can be defended against by non-malleable cryptography). Also, Charlie is sometimes Catherine, as there is a tendency to alternate genders (Alice, Bob, Catherine, Dave, Eve, etc.).

I like the version where Churchill listens to the communications of Adolf and Berlin.

I’ve never heard of that interpretation. But now that you say it, I am overwhelmed with a really, really icky feeling about Charlie the creepy, abusive, paranoid, controlling husband. A little OT, but such people always explain that they do what they do because everybody around them is dishonest, conspiratorial, and so forth. But they are the ones who are constantly cooking up dishonest plots to control the people around them.

I use Alice and Bob all the time when writing socratic dialogues. But I switch the names around from time to time. Charlie is often Charlene, for example, mostly because I have very fond memories of a friend from my youth who was christened Charlene but insisted that everybody call her “Charlie.”

A probable explanation in the other thread: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14804399