I see that the Morning Advertiser have updated their occasional list of "most popular pub names", which has attracted a little mainstream media coverage. Sadly it seems to be based on MA subscribers, so is not especially accurate as a quick cross-check of our own excellent live list quickly shows. Even allowing for possible differences in method (like ignoring suffixes so that Railway, Railway Inn, Railway Tavern, Railway Hotel etc are all counted as Railway) there are some pretty wide variations and obvious omissions.

Presumably as a publicity gimmick, they have also seized on the Nag's Head as having made the top 25 (nowhere near according to us) and trotted out (or should that be Trottered?) the totally ridiculous story that appeared a while ago that the name derives from lanterns hung on horses to signal to smugglers. Quite apart from the fact that smugglers' signal lanterns were closely masked to avoid alerting the excisemen, you might expect that this would mean many Nag's Heads would be on the coast. Needless to say, hardly any of them are, with only one being anywhere near a 'smuggling' area. It is a great shame that if you repeat something often enough it becomes accepted as a fact.