Jack Daniel's 'No. 7' Is A 150-Year-Old Mystery: Here's What Fans Think It Means

If you've ever looked at the label of your Jack Daniel's Old No. 7 whiskey and pondered what the "number 7" part means, you're hardly alone: It's a question that many whiskey fans have asked. And there's good and bad news when it comes to answering this question. First, the bad news: Even the Jack Daniel's distillery admits it doesn't know the meaning: The eponymous Jack Daniel gave it the number around 140 years ago, but his reason has been lost to history. The good news is that there are plenty of theories about the meaning of "No. 7" to choose between.

Let's start with the theories that have at least a little bit of evidence behind them. Perhaps the most prominent one is that the 7 was a registration number for tax purposes: Based on publications from the 1870s, Jack Daniel's biographer has claimed that distilleries in Tennessee were assigned tax numbers based on their tax districts, and seven was given to Jack Daniel's. These numbers were required to be displayed on products, making the 7 a holdover from those times. However, if this is true, it's unclear why only Jack Daniel's most popular (and cheapest) product features the number, rather than all its whiskeys.

Another potential explanation with at least a little evidence behind it is that the whiskey had been made the same way for seven generations, as this is apparently what the company wrote in a 1940 trademark filing. However, there's little more information about this claim, and it also raises the question of why the number hasn't increased over time, since the whiskey is now several generations older.

One of the more detailed fan theories about the number is that the company might have sent seven barrels of whiskey to the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair, and these were reported lost in transit. The company then sent another seven, but the originals were discovered, and given the label "Old No. 7" to differentiate them from the replacements that were shipped later. There doesn't seem to be much concrete evidence to back this up, but the level of detail perhaps makes it more believable.

Then there are the theories that don't have a lot of evidence or detail, but still seem fairly popular. A big one is the belief that seven was a lucky number for Daniel's or that it was a recipe number, possibly the seventh formulation for the whiskey that now bears the number. Another theory is that it was a train number: Either a train that transported whiskey to other markets, or simply a "favorite" train that ran through Daniel's hometown of Lynchburg. Finally, there's a theory that the number relates to Daniel's love life, referring to either his seventh girlfriend, or possibly seven past girlfriends. Ultimately though, the mystery behind the number works for Jack Daniel's: If it keeps people talking about the brand, there's no real need to dig up a correct answer.