Why is Tech often named after something else?

[Pancake]

Is it just me or does it seem like a disproportionate amount of tech is named after something else? Apple, mouse, cloud, python, edge, outlook.

The more I notice it, the more it annoys me. Not only as a fan of language do I find it unfortunate that words get repurposed and take on new meanings, but it makes me wonder why this is so common.

Does someone expend so much mental energy and creativity coming up with something that they have nothing left and look around the room and say “Fuck it, call it Oatmeal. Good enough”

Theories about this trend? Background around some of the naming choices? What are some of the best and worst examples of a common word repurposed by tech?

 

[Essence Lumin]

Is it just me or does it seem like a disproportionate amount of tech is named after something else? Apple, mouse, cloud, python, edge, outlook.

What else are you going to call stuff? Mouse - movement pointer? Cloud - Storage and programs on the internet?

That said, Microsoft in particular chooses names for their programs which are so common it is difficult sometimes to use the name as a search term which is annoying.

 

[Cristiano]

I think it is not lack of creativity - it is much simpler than that. A lot of times the naming is quite literal to represent its purpose. As Essence said, mouse and cloud respectively reflect their purpose (or in the case of mouse, it looks like a mouse - the buttons, the shape, the cord as a tail). It distills the purpose or the idea down to a simple name, and that is not necessarily a bad thing. It is not unique to tech - it is often also about branding, or about the inspiration behind something. You used Python - that came from the fact that the creator was a fan of Monty Python. Apple came from Steve Job's diet (he was a fruitarian) and a visit to an apple orchard with his then friend Steve Wozniak. Edge was the follow up to Explorer - and again, it is just a name that is supposed to envision its goals and purpose. Granted, Edge is also a shaving gel, but that is neither here nor there. Outlook was meant to evoke the idea that the program was used to represent your schedule, your messages and your contacts - your daily outlook. There are plenty of weird names in tech too (the whole R trend without the E - Flickr, Grindr,Tumblr). Lots of acronyms as well (TWAIN, SATA, GIF, JPEG) and names with interesting origins (Bluetooth, Adobe, Cisco, even Linden Lab).

In the end, names are about evoking something - an image, a purpose, an idea,a feeling. Tech is not unique there, it is just so intertwined in our lives.

 

[Free]

What else would you call Python? I mean, it's a programming language that's just like a giant, writhing snake that wraps itself around you and squeezes the life out of you until you end up with Youtube or Spotify.

Youtube. Spotify. Hmm...

 

[Argent Stonecutter]

But so is Perl.

Corvette is a naval vessel.

Mustang is a horse.

Cougar is a cat.

Barracuda is a fish.

Viper and Cobra are snakes.

Testarossa is redhead and Countach is like wow man.

 

[Veritable Quandry]

Knit was already taken?

 

[Soen Eber]

Tech is often very abstract, so anything fully descriptive would be a confusing jangle of words.

It could be worse. I've started reading up on western philosophy, and you do NOT want tech using pre-Socratic philosphical concepts or an A.I. named "Ubermensch", even though we all know the latter is just a matter of time (and ego). Saint Augustine's pear might be interesting, however.

 

[Pancake]

What else are you going to call stuff? Mouse - movement pointer? Cloud - Storage and programs on the internet?

Honestly I’d probably make new words for completely new things.

If it’s just a new model of something that exists I guess there isn’t much point being original but it does surprise me that with innovation and technology we don’t see more new words.

 

[Free]

Honestly I’d probably make new words for completely new things.

I've always wanted them to rename Second Life to Chugagoo.

 

[Pancake]

I realized that the reason I’m probably noticing it a lot recently, and why it’s annoying me, is because I’m going to school and studying Business Intelligence and Analytics.

I accepted that there are data warehouses, and data lakes, and even data lake houses.

Then powerBI, and Tableau, but R? Really we’re going to name things after letters? And then let’s upgrade by calling them Shiny Letters!

 

[Essence Lumin]

I realized that the reason I’m probably noticing it a lot recently, and why it’s annoying me, is because I’m going to school and studying Business Intelligence and Analytics.

I accepted that there are data warehouses, and data lakes, and even data lake houses.

Then powerBI, and Tableau, but R? Really we’re going to name things after letters? And then let’s make Shiny Letters!

First there was C, then there is ++

 

[Pancake]

I can’t with the plus plus sharp talk.

 

[Essence Lumin]

I realized that the reason I’m probably noticing it a lot recently, and why it’s annoying me, is because I’m going to school and studying Business Intelligence and Analytics.

I accepted that there are data warehouses, and data lakes, and even data lake houses.

Then powerBI, and Tableau, but R? Really we’re going to name things after letters? And then let’s make Shiny Letters!

Pirates like that language.

 

[Cristiano]

I can’t with the plus plus sharp talk.

I have made a lot of money with C#, so I am fond of it. Also, it was a clever name to differentiate it from other C based languages - as it refers to the musical note. While C++ may seem stupid, there is a reason for it. The ++ operator increments a variable by 1 - so C++ was a reference to it being an evolution from C. Programmers are not that creative in their naming (and don't get me started on their interface designs). There is also F as a programming language in addition to R.

 

[Pancake]

i am genuinely grateful and happy it’s afforded you a great life and all of us with SLU and VVO.

I also know as normal as I find it hearing people say plusplus in conversation, I’m really struggling to use the word R without coming right back to the thoughts that led me to write this post.

Perhaps I’ll start a career naming things lol
.

 

[Essence Lumin]

I have made a lot of money with C#, so I am fond of it.

Nothing to do with naming but I like C#. C++ makes me barf at the thought of programming with it.

 

[Free]

Perhaps I’ll start a career naming things lol

There are people out there who make a LOT of money doing that.

 

[Argent Stonecutter]

My closest encounter with C# is debugging the CIL code generator for LSL.

 

[Free]

I fear the days of C-- and C♭.

 

[Argent Stonecutter]

There's also Tiny C, Small C, Objective C, and CO2 (C Object Oriented).