The name "Sacnoth" comes from this story, published in 1908 by Lord Dunsany: The Fortress Unvanquishable, Save for Sacnoth . The story requires a bold hero to vanquish (kill) the evil wizard, much like many other stories. In this case there is a specified set of steps the hero needs to perform and perform well to accomplish the task. Much like an engineering problem the hero needs to do each step just so and not falter, which has defeated others in the past. It was a good allegory for the engineering process and Bill used it as a consulting firm name many years ago.