Not everybody can have a phone number as unforgettable as 867-5309. But there’s a good chance your digits relate to something, maybe even spell something – be it slang, a catchy phrase, or religious propaganda. Enter Phonespell (www.phonespell.org), an aptly titled Web site that matches up phone numbers with their corresponding letters on a touch-tone keypad.

Serving over 16 million queries since its 1995 inception, Phonespell was created when CGI programmer Jeremy Grodberg moved into a new apartment and wanted to choose a “memorable” phone number – so he authored a program that would find all linguistic possibilities of a phone number. And although some phone companies no longer allow customers to choose their numbers, www.phonespell.org is still useful, especially for translating 3- to 10-digit numbers into words. For example, we’ve discovered that one of the Phoenix fax numbers (617-536-1463) spells 617-DO-1-GOD. And Phonespell also performs the converse: interpreting letters into numeric groupings and telling us that the word “atheist” matches up with the number 284-3478.

Obviously not all phone numbers spell words, or “interesting mnemonics,” as Phonespell calls them, so if your digits translate into something racy, well, you’re just lucky. It also helps to have an exchange that spells a popular prefix, such as PRO (776) or MAL (625), or a combination of a few ones and zeroes (those numbers don’t have any corresponding letters). Although Phonespell might not serve any real purpose beyond passing amusement, it can be helpful to know what your digits signify, especially if they’re hard to remember. Besides, shouting BIG GEEK across a crowded bar instead of 244-4335 is a perfect way to test any potential suitor’s mettle.