# Names that gave you the wrong impression, but make sense once you learn their real meaning

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/names-that-gave-you-the-wrong-impression-but-make-sense-once-you-learn-their-real-meaning/649560>\
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\
**Created:** [February 7, 2013, 5:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/names-that-gave-you-the-wrong-impression-but-make-sense-once-you-learn-their-real-meaning/649560 "2013-02-07T05:17:13Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Jragon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19b73/32.png) [@Jragon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jragon)\
**Post date:** [February 7, 2013, 5:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/names-that-gave-you-the-wrong-impression-but-make-sense-once-you-learn-their-real-meaning/649560/1 "2013-02-07T05:17:13Z")

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When I first heard about SEO, a.k.a. Search Engine Optimization, I thought it was going to be really cool and interesting. There was even a club at my University. I thought it was going to be all about writing search engines and optimizing their performance!

No. No it is not. It is about ways to trick search engines into getting your website near the top of the results. My dreams? Shattered. But I can see why they call it Search Engine Optimization. You’re optimizing your web page for search engines – not optimizing search engines for performance/memory usage/result filtering.

Any other names that gave you the wrong impression, but made sense once you found out what they actually were? (inb4 penisland)

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**Author:** ![Doctor\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doctor_jackson/32/32_2.png) [@Doctor\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doctor_Jackson)\
**Post date:** [February 7, 2013, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/names-that-gave-you-the-wrong-impression-but-make-sense-once-you-learn-their-real-meaning/649560/2 "2013-02-07T21:44:24Z")

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TWAIN, the technology used for data acquisition from scanners, digital cameras, etc. I thought it had something to do with Samuel Clemmons or one of his characters until I learned that it really is an acronym of Technology Without An Interesting Name.