He said that it came from a variation on the number of the beast, picked because Thorpe disliked the modern superhero genre and expressed this in various ways in his stories, including recording his opinion of the Marvel Universe with the 616 designation.
[3] After its use in The Daredevils, the designation was later used by the American branch of Marvel Comics in the Excalibur title, which frequently referred to Captain Britain's early UK-published adventures.
This comic was written by Chris Claremont, who had created Captain Britain, and pencilled by Alan Davis, the artist on the UK-published series.
[3] Any Marvel comic book since Motion Picture Funnies Weekly #1 that is not explicitly designated an alternate universe or timeline is assumed to take place within the Earth-616 continuity.
It just sounds so stupid to my ear, and so counter to the kind of mindset we try to foster in regard to the stories we create and the thinking we try to employ.I never use it, I hate the term pure and simple and agree with Tom's assessment of it.