Show HN: How software projects and companies got their name

https://github.com/amitmerchant1990/how-products-got-their-name

by amitmerchant • 8 years ago

84 13 8 years ago

FrederikET• 8 years ago

I really like this. Especially because I'm bad at finding names for my projects, but I can see I'm not the only one. (Python and Laravel is my favorites)

kadfak• 8 years ago

A small addition to Git from its README file[1]:

  The name "git" was given by Linus Torvalds when he wrote the very first version. He described the tool as "the stupid content tracker" and the name as (depending on your mood):

  * random three-letter combination that is pronounceable, and not actually used by any common UNIX command. The fact that it is a mispronunciation of "get" may or may not be relevant.

  * stupid. contemptible and despicable. simple. Take your pick from the dictionary of slang.

  * "global information tracker": you're in a good mood, and it actually works for you. Angels sing, and a light suddenly fills the room.

  * "goddamn idiotic truckload of sh*t": when it breaks

[1] https://github.com/git/git/blob/master/README.md

amitmerchant• 8 years ago

I'll add this reference to the list. Or you can raise a pull request as well if you want.

rb808• 8 years ago

one of his daughter's name is My(after whom MySQL was named).

Mind blown

stop5• 8 years ago

He did the same with his daughter Maria

rootlocus• 8 years ago

You didn't honestly think it was your sql, right?

theandrewbailey2• 8 years ago

I thought it was a tutorial on steroids. You know programming tutorials that prefix almost every variable with "my"? MyFoo, MyBar, MyNumber, MyString, MyDatabase, MySQL...

tqkxzugoaupvwqr• 8 years ago

Really interesting to read about the birth of names. Gives some names a certain charm and some a certain triviality, e.g. Debian (Debra + Ian).

jwilk• 8 years ago

https://wiki.debian.org/WhyTheName

spatulon• 8 years ago

In browser circles, 'chrome' refers to the bits of the browser UI that aren't the renderer.

It's hard for me to believe that Chrome's name didn't just originate from Google talking about taking WebKit and building their own chrome around it.

richev• 8 years ago

The use of "chrome" in this context isn't limited only to browsers[0].

My recollection is that Google Chrome was so-named because one of their design goals was to _minimize_ the amount of GUI chrome, so that the maximum amount of screen space was available for displaying web page content.

[0] https://www.nngroup.com/articles/browser-and-gui-chrome/

jaclaz• 8 years ago

Nice.

I think you need to add somewhere that C# is called C Sharp, and the idea - besides the connection to musical notation is that the character # ("sharp", though improperly as in ASCII it is "Number sign") is made out of four +'s, increasing from the two in C++, your sentence:

C# as the '#' symbol looks like two '++' stacked on one another, indicating that C# is an increment of C++. though at the end of the day means the same, is IMHO less clear than the original from the source you cited:

https://www.computerworld.com.au/article/261958/a-z_programm...

So the naming committee had to get to work and we sort of liked the notion of having an inherent reference to C in there, and a little word play on C++, as you can sort of view the sharp sign as four pluses, so it’s C++++. And the musical aspect was interesting too. So C# it was, and I’ve actually been really happy with that name. It’s served us well.

theandrewbailey2• 8 years ago

When Java switched hands to the Eclipse foundation last year, I learned that the foundation wasn't named after their goal of "eclipse the Sun Microsystems". That would have been awesome if true.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eclipse_(software)#Name

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