The magazine was first called The Athenian Gazette or The Casuistical Mercury when it was first printed. Dunton explains in his autobiography Life and Errors he had an inspiration for the title one day while he was walking home that he would "not exchange for 50 guineas." He continues that a reader of his magazine need only consult Acts 17:21 to see the reasoning behind the title. Dunton, p. 188. (Acts 17:21 (For all the Athenians and strangers which were there spent their time in nothing else, but either to tell, or to hear some new thing.) - King James Version, 1611)
