From: http://michaelkimsal.com/blog/k-as-in-knife/ 
dated 2006.Oct.12, retreived 2009.Jan.19


K as in knife
Date October 12, 2006

My last name starts with a K, so whenever I’ve spelled out my name for people on the phone I’ve said “K, as in ‘knife’”. I’ve done this for years, almost without thinking. I was initially inspired by Inspector Clouseau in the first Pink Panther movie, where he was spelling something with a ‘J’, and he said ‘J, as in ‘jalapeno’”.

Anyway, years ago I started to put together a list of words with confusing/ambiguous first letters. One of the guys at work lent a hand and we nearly completed a list you can use for yourself. He brought in more of the foreign words, and helped in a few tough spots too. I think there’s still a couple with this list that need to be done or improved on, but I figured I’d post it here as my little public service. Feel free to use this next time you’re on the phone with someone needing to spell something!

    * a as in aisle (or aye)
    * b as in bdellium
    * c as in czar
    * d as in djibouti
    * e as in eight
    * f as in fjord
    * g as in gnaw
    * h as in herb
    * i as in isle (ioan was recommended but I’m split on this one)
    * j as in jalepeno
    * k as in knife
    * l as in Lladro (llano was another suggested alternate)
    * m as in mnemonic
    * n as in Nguyen (or ngwee)
    * o as in oestrogen
    * p as in pneumatic
    * q as in queue (or quay - pronounced ‘kay’)
    * r as in ????
    * s as in scene (or sea)
    * t as in tao (pronounced with the ‘t’ as a ‘d’)
    * u as in uakari
    * v as in “Five” (as in the roman numeral five - yes, a bit weak, but still gives the level of confusion suitable for phone conversations)
    * w as in wrench (or ‘why’)
    * x as in xenon
    * y as in yttrium (Yvonne might work better for the phone?)
    * z as in ????????

After I put this together, I did discover this other site [1]
which has a similiar list, with multiple options for each letter. 

1: [www.against-the-grain.com/Knife.html]