On Monday, June 1, 2015 at 2:46:20 AM UTC-4, wrote:
When I was young, phone numbers has a WORD at the beginning.
If you're over 60, you'll probably remember this:

For example:

Hilltop5-5555 = hi5-5555 which is 445-5555
Spring2-5555 = sp2-5555 which is 772-5555
Worth8-5555 = wo8-5555 which is 968-5555
Orchid3-5555 = or3-5555 which is 673-5555
Victory1-5555 = vi1-5555 which is 841-5555
Tiger4-5555 = ti4-5555 which is 844-5555

These seemed to make it easier to remember phone numbers, and the words
were usually simple words that were easy to remember. The word was
assigned by the phone company. It seems they stopped doing this around
the mid 1960's. I wonder why they stopped?

Anyone know the reason?

Of course you can assign your own words. But no one will know what
you're talking about unless they are at least 60 years old.

For example,

762----- can be SOund2 or POny2 or SOuth2 ROund2, POlice2 etc.....
536----- can be LEmon6 or JElly6 or KEndra6 .... and so on....

If your number is 536-1234 Just tell your friends to call LEmon6-1234.

I would guess that using words for the exchange part of
the number goes back to the days when there was an operator
that actually plugged wires together to make the connection.
So, there was an operator or operators for Hilltop5 and
Hilltop was the local neighborhood it served. As they were
replaced by the strowger switch, then by electronic switches,
more and more exchanges came into play, using words made
less sense. It's what's happening with area codes today.
Twenty years ago, area codes were pretty good indicators of
where the party was located. If you saw 212, you knew it
was Manhattan. Now, with VOIP, cell phones, etc
that significance is greatly diminishing.