How Popular Tech Companies Got Their Names

By now, most of us have heard the story of how Google got its name. But Google isn’t the only company out there with an odd name. And it certainly isn’t the only name with an interesting story. Here is the list of stories behind the naming of popular tech companies.

how popular tech companies got their names

Via Reddit

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Dimitri

I had lots of dealings with Compaq when they were still around, and had always been told that the name came from “COMPAtibility Quality” (Wikipedia says the same thing). Given that it was one of the first companies to try to take a bite out of IBM’s PC market, it makes sense that they would want to emphasize their compatibility with the giant’s PC’s.
Jorge

Yahoo is supposed to mean
Yet Another Hierarchally Organised Oracle

I guess Yang and Filo changed the story because nowadays an acronym this long is utterly ludicrous

John

Yet Another Hierarchally Organised Ontology. Not Oracle.

http://www.lttsy.com lttsy

Our website is: it w w w . lttsy . c o m

We also sell a variety of brand-name items: The following is our best-selling items. I hope you like

jordan air max oakland raiders $38

Christan Audigier BIKINI JACKET $58

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w w w . lttsy . c o m
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=11578322&id=639850133 Lhun

THIS IS DEAD WRONG.
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=11578322&id=639850133

1) Apple. No, it’s not the favorite fruit of jobs. This was named in homage to Newton. One of apple’s first computers was a Newton. Newton was persecuted for being gay. He killed himself by taking a bite out of a cyanide laced apple. Hence, the rainbow apple with a bite.

Cisco is correct. Compaq is correct. Corel is correct. Google is correct. Hotmail is correct (it was initially not owned by microsoft, my old hotmail account comes from pre-ms days) HP is correct, intel is correct, lotus is correct.

MICROSOFT IS DEAD WRONG. In the book cyberpunk book “Neuromancer”: “Microsofts” are micro, crystalline software that interface with a implant behind your ear to give you access to knowledge or programs that interface on top of your brain like an augmented reality. It’s OBVIOUS that this came from that. Gates IS a sci-fi geek, by his own admission.

All of them are correct up until Yahoo!. Yet Another Hierarchally Organised Oracle. This is what yahoo stands for.

When you’ve been using the web since childhood, you learn a few things. I’m so sick of these newbs spewing crap and getting paid to do it.

I’ve been told now that Compaq actually stands for: COMPAtibility Quality. This is listed also on wikipedia. Makes sense, since they were a major IBM “Clone” company early on.
Lhun

1) Apple. No, it’s not the favorite fruit of jobs. This was named in homage to Newton. One of apple’s first computers was a Newton. Newton was persecuted for being gay. He killed himself by taking a bite out of a cyanide laced apple. Hence, the rainbow apple with a bite.

Cisco is correct. Corel is correct. Google is correct. Hotmail is correct (it was initially not owned by microsoft, my old hotmail account comes from pre-ms days) HP is correct, intel is correct, lotus is correct.

MICROSOFT IS DEAD WRONG. In the book cyberpunk book “Neuromancer”: “Microsofts” are micro, crystalline software that interface with a implant behind your ear to give you access to knowledge or programs that interface on top of your brain like an augmented reality. It’s OBVIOUS that this came from that. Gates IS a sci-fi geek, by his own admission.

All of them are correct up until Yahoo!. Yet Another Hierarchally Organised Oracle. This is what yahoo stands for.

When you’ve been using the web since childhood, you learn a few things. I’m so sick of these newbs spewing crap and getting paid to do it.

I’ve been told now that Compaq actually stands for: COMPAtibility Quality. This is listed also on wikipedia. Makes sense, since they were a major IBM “Clone” company early on.

D. Lee Squt

Wow, Lhun. Could you be any more stoopid?

“Apple. No, it’s not the favorite fruit of jobs. This was named in homage to Newton. One of apple’s first computers was a Newton. … He killed himself by taking a bite out of a cyanide laced apple.”

Apple was founded in 1976. Development started on the Apple Newton in 1989. More than TWENTY years later. Newton did not kill himself with a cyanide laced apple. He died at an old age POSSIBLY attributable to Mercury poisoning from his years of alchemical experiments.

“MICROSOFT IS DEAD WRONG. In the book cyberpunk book ‘Neuromancer’…”.

Blah, blah, blah… Microsoft was founded in 1975. Neuromancer was published in 1984.

“When you’ve been using the web since childhood, you learn a few things. I’m so sick of these newbs spewing crap and getting paid to do it.”

Using the web? How are you using the web exactly? Especially considering a simple quick search would have shown how full of crap you are.

Somebody

That’s all fine and good, but, um…

1989 – 1976 = 13
(which, last I checked, is not ‘more than 20 years’)

I’m just sayin’.

magical dave

Also: “Yet Another Hierarchally Organised Oracle” is a backronym; the name Yahoo! came first & the “full name” came later.

Is this guy serious about the Microsoft thing? Maybe Bill Gates is such a big geek that he invents time travel

cyberloafer

I think that you’ll find that it was Alan Turing who ate the cyanide laced apple after being persecuted for being homosexual – despite his efforts at decyphering enigma codes using his “bombes”.
donmesserli

I believe Oracle was founded by Ellison, ED Oates and BOB Miner.
http://twitter.com/itandrea itandrea

The Newton’s apple was that one that felt on his head and started a physical and mathematical revolution about gravity.
That’s why Apple was called Apple, because something simple can create a revolution.

http://- s

Steve (and team) does have a mythic vision, so whether literally true or not, Apple does consistently create revolution (‘think different’) from its simple innovations.

http:jalanbond.blogspot.com Vishal Jalan

Would like to add to the interesting trivia about naming of HP (Hewlett-Packard). The name was indeed decided by the flip of a coin but it was Packard who had won the toss.
zedizded

MICROSOFT IS DEAD WRONG… Gates is smart man, and was smart teenager but he was geek and not very popular with girls, and one girl pull joke on him telling him to name his company MICROSOFT (MICRO—SOFT; It’s so OBVIOUS), and when he got it, it was toooo late
Larkru

No matter the origin of the company name, the end product of each is technology. The language of technology is ACRONYM. And since technology cannot be stagnant, neither should the “myth” of name origin. Let the names be written in ACRONYM and develop along with the user experience.

Eight months ago I became particularly paranoid about the availability of my personal information. Simultaneously, I began to receive emails from the “rightest” of the “right” regarding the current Administration in Washington. And I discovered that I had limitations placed on my Google options if I didn’t allow them to throw a cookie my way.

Thus, name origin myth by current experience:

GOOGLE: Guiltless Organism Organized for Government’s Lawless Exploitation

YAHOO: Yet Another Hierarchical Officious Observer

Let experience guide imagination.
RHMathis

“The popular radio company at the time was Victrola.”

Sorry, but that was the popular phonograph company’s name. In 1929, RCA purchased The Victor Talking Machine Company, and the new company was called “RCA Victor”. Wikipedia says that they got the name from various products that used the “-ola” ending. That included Victrola.