How Programming Languages Got Their Names
Programming language names turn out to be a mix of puns, acronyms, tributes, constraints, and happy accidents, from C, Lisp, and FORTRAN to newer languages like Rust, Go, Kotlin, and Zig. Commenters share origin stories — such as Java’s rename from Oak, Kotlin echoing Java’s island theme, Scheme shortened by a filename limit, and Lua following SOL (“sun”) with “moon” — while also pointing out cases of self-naming and backronyms. Several note that many popular languages have multiple, sometimes conflicting origin anecdotes, and criticize unsourced articles that present these stories as settled fact.
Overall reaction to the article
- Many find the article interesting but too short and incomplete.
- Multiple comments criticize it as a “puff piece” with no cited sources, making the anecdotes hard to trust.
- Several readers respond by contributing much longer, crowdsourced lists of language etymologies.
Brainstormed, marketing, and ecosystem-driven names
- Java: remembered as originally “Oak” (or “Green”) and later renamed by a product manager; one commenter confuses its naming process with a brainstorming/whiteboard story from another product (possibly AltaVista).
- Kotlin: said to be named after Kotlin Island, mirroring Java’s island naming and its JVM targeting; connections to the company’s roots in Saint Petersburg are also mentioned.
- JavaScript: described as deliberately named to ride on Java’s popularity, seen by some as a particularly “sad” etymology.
- Go: reportedly chosen because it’s short and easy to type; some assume its association with the company name was convenient but not primary.
Acronyms, backronyms, and alphabetic jokes
- Classic acronym-based names are enumerated: LISP, FORTRAN, ALGOL, Prolog, PHP, SQL, BASIC, COBOL, AWK, Tcl, etc.
- Alphabetic successors and puns: B → C → C++ → D; C#, F#, C--, joke languages like C-; “IBM” as
map succ "HAL", “WNT” as successor to “VMS”. - SQL’s evolution from “SEQUEL” (a pun on QUEL) is noted, as is Forth’s truncation from “Fourth” due to system limits.
Names from people, places, and culture
- Numerous languages named after people, mathematicians, or places: Ada, Pascal, Oberon, Eiffel, Sather, Nim, Erlang, Euclid, Occam, Gödel, Haskell, Curry, etc.
- Oberon’s origin is debated: some emphasize the moon of Uranus, others point to the mythological/Shakespearean character; project literature is cited in support of the moon explanation.
- Erlang is officially tied to a Danish mathematician, but comments suggest the Ericsson connection is also part of the story.
- Lua is linked both to Portuguese “moon” and to earlier languages SOL/DEL (“sun” theme).
- Wolfram is criticized as self-named and an example of excessive ego.
Rust, complexity, and historical uncertainty
- Readers note Rust is (reportedly) named after a fungus “over‑engineered for survival,” matching perceptions of the language as powerful but highly complex.
- Some express that this complexity discourages them from learning Rust, opting for simpler languages like Go.
- A linked discussion suggests the creator doesn’t clearly remember the exact naming origin, highlighting how such stories can be misremembered and simplified over time.