I've noticed people in the West love reaching for words in other cultures to name their project, whether it's Japan or Greek mythology. One practical reason for

I've noticed people in the West love reaching for words in other cultures to name their project, whether it's Japan or Greek mythology. One practical reason for this is that the string is more unique on Google search. Meanwhile, one of the most popular projects to come out of Japan is Ruby the programming language. The tech demographic probably did a few more rounds of Google/Wiki (re)searching than a person who gets a random Chinese character tattooed, but I wonder how much is lost in translation and whether the conceptualization / romanticization / admiration that English-speaking Westerners hold of a word the same as in the original culture. Himeji probably refers to Himeji castle in Japan, and I wonder if developers outside the West consider naming their project The Alamo or Buckingham. It feels more authentic with Apple of California naming their recent Mac OS X releases Mojave, Catalina, Big Sur. Now that I live in Japan, that inclination to name my projects after Japanese things have gone away