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Steve Jobs on how Apple got its name: "And we were about three months late in filing a fictitious business name so I threatened to call the company Apple Compu

Steve Jobs on how Apple got its name: "And we were about three months late in filing a fictitious business name so I threatened to call the company Apple Computer unless someone suggested a more interesting name by five o'clock that day. Hoping to stimulate creativity. And it stuck. And that's why we're called Apple."

ekianjo 8y ago
The added benefit is that at the time you end up appearing very early in the phone books if you company name starts with A. Example: Atari, Amiga... Amiga was also chosen, if I remember correctly, also because it made it appear before Atari (eternal rivals...).
- franga2000 8y ago
  ASUS has a similar origin. They were supposed to be called Pegasus, but they cut off the first 3 letters to be the first on alphabetical lists (I guess they didn't notice Acer's existence).
  - detaro 8y ago
    ASUS was founded by Acer employees, so they probably were aware of Acer :D
- msla 8y ago
  BRB, going to found AAA Ajax Automated Alphabetical Computer Company. We'll dba AAAAAACC. BTW, this explains the eternal popularity of Algol, even if they do keep changing the name: C/C++/Java/C#/Fortran-90...
  - ThinkingGuy 8y ago
    The first page or so of phone books actually did use to be dominated by companies with names just like that: "AAAAA Landscaping," "AAAA A Taxi," "AAA AJ Accounting," etc.
- felipelemos 8y ago
  If I remember correctly, Be (the creators of BeOS) was chosen because it would be the first word of the second letter in the phone book.
lgierth 8y ago
Reminds me of Banana Driven Development (h/t @pcalcado) -- if you can't come up with a good name right away, name it banana or some other fruit, or generally something that's so ridiculous that you just have to find a proper name for it.
- jsjohnst 8y ago
  And that’s how code goes live into production with names like “fuzzy giraffe”[0] baked into it, because there wasn’t time to go back and clean it up once a decision was made. [0] true story from an employer of mine.

ekianjo 8y ago

The added benefit is that at the time you end up appearing very early in the phone books if you company name starts with A. Example: Atari, Amiga... Amiga was also chosen, if I remember correctly, also because it made it appear before Atari (eternal rivals...).

franga2000 8y ago
ASUS has a similar origin. They were supposed to be called Pegasus, but they cut off the first 3 letters to be the first on alphabetical lists (I guess they didn't notice Acer's existence).
- detaro 8y ago
  ASUS was founded by Acer employees, so they probably were aware of Acer :D
msla 8y ago
BRB, going to found AAA Ajax Automated Alphabetical Computer Company. We'll dba AAAAAACC. BTW, this explains the eternal popularity of Algol, even if they do keep changing the name: C/C++/Java/C#/Fortran-90...
- ThinkingGuy 8y ago
  The first page or so of phone books actually did use to be dominated by companies with names just like that: "AAAAA Landscaping," "AAAA A Taxi," "AAA AJ Accounting," etc.
felipelemos 8y ago
If I remember correctly, Be (the creators of BeOS) was chosen because it would be the first word of the second letter in the phone book.

lgierth 8y ago

Reminds me of Banana Driven Development (h/t @pcalcado) -- if you can't come up with a good name right away, name it banana or some other fruit, or generally something that's so ridiculous that you just have to find a proper name for it.

jsjohnst 8y ago
And that’s how code goes live into production with names like “fuzzy giraffe”[0] baked into it, because there wasn’t time to go back and clean it up once a decision was made. [0] true story from an employer of mine.