To the crews that operated and serviced locomotives, the Greek and Roman mythological names adopted by the Burlington seemed quite a mouthful, particularly the names of some of the Twin Cities cars like Psyche, Minerva, and Ceres. But when the first of the steamlined Hudsons was christened AEOLUS in the Spring of 1937, it was just too much. Almost immediately, the crews modified the masculine Greek AEOLUS into the much simplier feminine English ALICE. The name stuck with the common man and was quickly expanded upon.

Back in 1934 a strange apparition had been added to the extremely popular Popeye comic strip: Alice The Goon. As originally drawn, the Goon was an unclothed, hairy monster which uttered utterly incomprehensible noises and was very successful at terrifiying small children. Consequently, Alice The Goon was withdrawn from the strip after a period of public outcry about the character's frightening nature - but not before the term Goon had caught on. Parents admonished their children, 'Be good, or the Goon will get you!' Alice, though frightening to childern, had become quite popular, and she was soon returned to the comic strip in a more acceptable form, clothed in a polka dot blouse and skirt and wearing a hat with a perky flower. Her utterings were still incomprehensible, but she was now much less frightening - so much so that she assumed the role of little Swee' Pea's babysitter. The nickname 'Alice The Goon' and 'Big Alice The Goon' seemed somehow appropriate for the two streamlined locomotives, and for the rest of their shrouded careers they were most commonly known by either of those two monikers, or simply as Alice.