folklore was that IBM used it as an example of a bad variable name, based on Zarathustra Q Xerxes III

Here it is, in fact! Page 19:

http://bitsavers.informatik.uni-stuttgart.de/pdf/ibm/360/os/...

> But if the programmer decided to use ZQX-3 in pl.ace of MINIMUM-BALANCE because it is shorter, or because he once met a cab driver named Zarathustra Q. Xerxes III, then it is a bad name.