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Originally Posted by Sweetpea
Completely not part of the original topic, but what about U and V? Considering the U is a relatively new addition too... And why isn't the W "double V" instead of a "double U"?
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Ah, well handwriting caused this particular problem. Originally the glyphs for U and V were reversed from what they are now. They got switched after the W was added to the alphabet which is why it is still called double u.
When handwriting became more popular it was deemed that the u was written much more often than the v, after all it was a vowel. The flowing of handwriting as apposed to printing was much easier to make a flowing u in a word than a v so the powers that be switched the glyphs for the two letters. This happened in the late 17th or more likely the early 18th century. (I am sure it took a while to switch.) Existing printing including the KJV bible had to be reprinted to conform to the new convention. This is all part of the transition from middle English to modern English. You can still find early works where the letter glyphs are reversed. I usually reverse them to modern usage when making an eBook from these early sources as well as fixing the long flowing S that looks like a f from the same time period.
Dale