When did codenames for military operations start

A friend of mine and I were talking about the operations in Iraq, and he asked me when did we start naming our military operations? I wasn’t sure, but could understand why we would put codenames in place.

Does anyone know when this started as a general military practice?

The formal use of operational code names seems to have begun sometime during the First World War, according to this source, originating with the Germans during the last two years of the war.

If by “we” you mean the United States, it appears to have begun using operational code names just prior to its entry into WWII. One of the first was “Operation Indigo,” the reinforcement of Iceland by American troops.