# Etymologies of some famous tech names **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [November 14, 2013, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/etymologies-of-some-famous-tech-names/673917 "2013-11-14T17:07:15Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![deltasigma](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e5b9ba/32.png) [@deltasigma](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/deltasigma)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2013, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/etymologies-of-some-famous-tech-names/673917/1 "2013-11-14T17:07:15Z")
[This was pretty interesting.](http://www.techhive.com/article/2061288/so-thats-why-its-called-bluetooth-and-other-surprising-tech-name-origins.html#tk.nl_thbest) For example, in connection with the Nintendo entry I learned that Yakuza, the Japanese mafia, translates as 8-9-3, a losing hand in a blackjack like card game. Here is part of the entry for ‘bluetooth.’ > [@](#): > > Like most normal people, you probably haven’t invested too much of your valuable time pondering the origins of the term “Bluetooth.” As it turns out, the ubiquitous wireless technology’s name has nothing to do with being blue or tooth-like in appearance and has everything to do with medieval Scandinavia. > > Harald Bluetooth was the Viking king of Denmark between 958 and 970. King Harald was famous for uniting parts of Denmark and Norway into one nation and converting the Danes to Christianity. > > So, what does a turn-of-the-last-millennium Viking king have to do with wireless communication? He was a uniter! > > In the mid-1990s, the wireless communication field needed some uniting. Numerous corporations were developing competing, noncompatible standards. Many people saw this growing fragmentation as an impediment to widespread adoption of wireless. ---
**Author:** ![MikeG](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mikeg/32/4329_2.png) [@MikeG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MikeG)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2013, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/etymologies-of-some-famous-tech-names/673917/2 "2013-11-14T18:29:25Z")
“Taser” comes from fiction: Thomas A. Swift’s Electric Rifle. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2013, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/etymologies-of-some-famous-tech-names/673917/3 "2013-11-14T18:56:35Z")
> [@MikeG](#): > > “Taser” comes from fiction: Thomas A. Swift’s Electric Rifle. For which they had to “invent” his middle initial. Tom Swift had no middle name. > [@](#): > > Tom Swift’s fictional inventions have directly inspired several actual inventions, among them Lee Felsenstein’s “Tom Swift Terminal”, which “drove the creation of an early personal computer known as the Sol”,[44] and the taser. The name “taser” was originally “TSER”, for “Tom Swift Electric Rifle”. The invention was named after the central device in Tom Swift and His Electric Rifle (1911); according to inventor Jack Cover, “an ‘A’ was added because we got tired of answering the phone ‘TSER.’”[45] > **[Tom Swift](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Swift)** > > Tom Swift is the main character of six series of American juvenile science fiction and adventure novels that emphasize science, invention, and technology. Inaugurated in 1910, the sequence of series comprises more than 100 volumes. The first Tom Swift – later, Tom Swift Sr. – was created by Edward Stratemeyer, the founder of the Stratemeyer Syndicate, a book packaging firm. Tom's adventures have been written by various ghostwriters, beginning with Howard Garis. Most of the books are credited to ... ---
**Author:** ![Morbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morbo/32/389_2.png) [@Morbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morbo)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2013, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/etymologies-of-some-famous-tech-names/673917/4 "2013-11-14T20:02:08Z")
TWAIN, the scanning API, is an acronym for Technology Without An Interesting Name. This is commonly disputed, but I happen to have been involved with its inception. At the time a bunch of sticks-in-the-mud reviewing the SDK tried to explain that it referred to the line from Kipling, but once the acronym was suggested that was pretty much it. ---
**Author:** ![Infovore](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/infovore/32/420_2.png) [@Infovore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Infovore)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2013, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/etymologies-of-some-famous-tech-names/673917/5 "2013-11-14T23:32:49Z")
[Hadoop](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apache_Hadoop)was named after the inventor’s son’s stuffed elephant. The UNIX mail program ‘biff’ was named after a dog. ---
**Author:** ![whitetho](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whitetho/32/1059_2.png) [@whitetho](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/whitetho)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2013, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/etymologies-of-some-famous-tech-names/673917/6 "2013-11-15T20:52:54Z")
In 1819 Baron Charles Cagniard de la Tour turned to Greek mythology when he invented a noise-making device. Per [Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siren_%28noisemaker%29): “De la Tour’s siren could produce sound under water, suggesting a link with the sirens of Greek mythology; hence the name of the instrument.” ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2013, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/etymologies-of-some-famous-tech-names/673917/7 "2013-11-15T21:07:04Z")
Anyone remember Sun Microsystems? That was an acronym for Stanford University Network. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2013, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/etymologies-of-some-famous-tech-names/673917/8 "2013-11-15T21:19:26Z")
The early days of Internet protocols had a lot of this. “Archie,” the first search protocol, was coined from the word “Archive,” but later protocols were “Jughead” and “Veronica.” There was also “Gopher,” which supposedly was coined because it would “Go for” the files. The fact that it was developed at the University of Minnesota – whose sports teams were the Gophers – was not just coincidental. ---
**Author:** ![Digital\_is\_the\_new\_Analog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a88e4f/32.png) [@Digital\_is\_the\_new\_Analog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Digital_is_the_new_Analog)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2013, 1:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/etymologies-of-some-famous-tech-names/673917/9 "2013-11-16T01:06:26Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > Anyone remember Sun Microsystems? That was an acronym for Stanford University Network. Remember it? I worked there for three years… I apparently have a history of working for tech companies that dwindle and are forgotten…or at least given up for dead. > [@RealityChuck](#): > > The early days of Internet protocols had a lot of this. “Archie,” the first search protocol, was coined from the word “Archive,” but later protocols were “Jughead” and “Veronica.” > > There was also “Gopher,” which supposedly was coined because it would “Go for” the files. The fact that it was developed at the University of Minnesota – whose sports teams were the Gophers – was not just coincidental. When I worked at Sun, I used ELM (ELectronic Mail) as an e-mail client. Other people used PINE (Pine Is Not Elm). ---
**Author:** ![robert\_columbia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e79b87/32.png) [@robert\_columbia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robert_columbia)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2013, 2:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/etymologies-of-some-famous-tech-names/673917/10 "2013-11-16T02:12:14Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > The early days of Internet protocols had a lot of this. “Archie,” the first search protocol, was coined from the word “Archive,” but later protocols were “Jughead” and “Veronica.”… There’s an old joke that you might be a nerd if… you name your three daughters Eudora, Veronica, and Mozilla. There was a running joke that PCMCIA _actually_ stood for “People Can’t Memorize Computer Industry Acronyms” ---
**Author:** ![deltasigma](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e5b9ba/32.png) [@deltasigma](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/deltasigma)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2013, 2:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/etymologies-of-some-famous-tech-names/673917/11 "2013-11-16T02:36:30Z")
> [@robert\_columbia](#): > > There’s an old joke that you might be a nerd if… you name your three daughters Eudora, Veronica, and Mozilla. I was in love with Eudora. The original Eudora. Not whatever mutant clone they eventually came up with. After I had to give her up I despaired and drifted off into the wasteland know as webmail. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Woo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7c8e57/32.png) [@Dr.Woo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Woo)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2013, 2:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/etymologies-of-some-famous-tech-names/673917/12 "2013-11-16T02:40:06Z")
> [@Digital\_is\_the\_new\_Analog](#): > > Remember it? I worked there for three years… > > I apparently have a history of working for tech companies that dwindle and are forgotten…or at least given up for dead. > > When I worked at Sun, I used ELM (ELectronic Mail) as an e-mail client. Other people used PINE (Pine Is Not Elm). Ha! I used elm at Sun too - what a barrel o’ fun that was. Cisco bought TGV back in 1996, which is a shame because TGV stood for Two Guys and a Vax. ---
**Author:** ![BobArrgh](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bobarrgh/32/2881_2.png) [@BobArrgh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobArrgh)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2013, 10:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/etymologies-of-some-famous-tech-names/673917/13 "2013-11-16T22:28:26Z")
Regarding TGV, I heard that once they had grown beyond the original two guys and had more computers, the “TGV” stood for “Those Guys and Vaxen”. ---
**Author:** ![JWT\_Kottekoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/3ec8ea/32.png) [@JWT\_Kottekoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JWT_Kottekoe)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2013, 3:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/etymologies-of-some-famous-tech-names/673917/14 "2013-11-17T03:42:15Z")
Sony was at least in part named for “sonny boy”. Here is a quote from [Wikipedia:](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sony) > [@](#): > > Its founders Akio Morita and Masaru Ibuka derived the name from sonus, the Latin word for sound, and also from the English slang word “sonny”, since they considered themselves to be “sonny boys”, a loan word into Japanese which in the early 1950s connoted smart and presentable young men. ---
**Author:** ![Simplicio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c37758/32.png) [@Simplicio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Simplicio)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2013, 4:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/etymologies-of-some-famous-tech-names/673917/15 "2013-11-17T04:04:58Z")
I learned the otherday that the “gnu” in the open source graphing program “gnuplot” doesn’t come from Richard Stallman’s open source project. The authors weren’t aware of Stallman at the time they chose the name, and the name of the plotting program was just supposed to be a pun on the name of another program: “new-plot”. Kind of an odd coincidence.