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You know the names, but do you know where those names came from? Here are the stories behind the naming of TiVo, BlackBerry and more – including what they were almost called.
1. TiVo
Can you imagine if, instead of “TiVo-ing” the latest episode of Lost, you were “Bongo-ing” it? “Bongo” and “Lasso” are just two of the 800 possible names the marketing folks kicked around before settling on TiVo. The final name was cobbled together from “TV” and the engineering acronym “I/O,” which stands for “input/output.” Little did they know their noun would become a verb and their oddly-named invention would forever change the way people watch television.
2. Bluetooth
Despite the lack of dignity displayed by people who shout into their Bluetooth headsets wherever they go, the name of the device actually has a rather regal origin. In the 10th Century, Danish King Harald Blatand was able to unite warring factions in Norway, Sweden, and Denmark under one banner. Similarly, the developers of the Bluetooth signal wanted to unite many different forms of technology – cars, computers, and mobile phones – under one communications network. So when they were coming up with a name, they went with the English translation of the Danish king’s last name, “Bluetooth.”
3. Hulu
Hulu means many things to many people. To some, it’s a great online resource for watching their favorite TV shows and movies. But to a native Hawaiian, it means “hair.” To someone who speaks Swahili, it means “cease.” To an Indonesian, it means “butt.” While these translations are accurate, the folks behind naming hulu.com were inspired by a couple of Mandarin Chinese definitions instead – “interactive recording” and “a hollowed-out gourd used to hold precious things.” Despite this often misunderstood word, the website is rapidly becoming one of the biggest names in streaming video. Well, except in Indonesia…
4. BlackBerry
Would President Obama have fought so hard to keep his “LeapFrog” phone? Because the phone was leaps and bounds over everything else on the market, this was one of the names considered for the BlackBerry. Another possibility was “Strawberry,” because the tiny keys resembled seeds. But when someone felt the word “straw” sounded too slow, another berry was suggested as a placeholder until something more official was developed. Over time, the temporary berry became so synonymous with the new device, it was adopted by default. For anyone addicted to their BlackBerry, the origins of the nickname “CrackBerry” should need no explanation.
5. Nintendo Wii
Although the off-color jokes almost write themselves, Nintendo had other ideas when they named their latest video game system. First of all, the word is pronounced “we,” which emphasizes the social concept that Nintendo envisioned for the console. The name is also universal, without any direct translation into any particular language, reinforcing that all-inclusive idea and avoiding any Hulu-like situations. They even liked the double-i spelling because it looks like two people standing side-by-side. The name was not popular at first, but the concept obviously caught on, because Americans have purchased over 20 million Wiis since its debut in 2006, making it one of the most successful video game systems ever.
6. Wikipedia
While the origin of the second half of the name might seem rather obvious, the first half is still a mystery to many. “Wiki” is used to describe any website content that is specifically designed to be edited by its users. The name was first coined by Ward Cunningham to describe software he wrote back in 1994 that was meant to speed up the communication process between computer programmers. He borrowed the word from the Hawaiian language, where it means “fast”, after hearing it in the Honolulu airport when an employee told him to take the “Wiki Wiki Shuttle” between terminals. Many people mistakenly believe Wiki is an acronym for “What I Know Is.” However, that definition was actually applied to the word after the fact, making it instead a backronym (which is now my new favorite word).
7. Asus Computers
Netbook computers are the hottest gadget out there, with around 14 million of the cheap little laptops sold in 2008. One of the big names in netbook production is the Taiwanese computer company, Asus, which gets its name from the winged horse of Greek mythology, Pegasus. But if you took a quick glance at the phone book, “Pegasus” wouldn’t have been too high in the directory of computer companies. So, to increase their visibility in alphabetical lists, they dropped the first three letters of their name. It was an unusual strategy, but apparently it worked.
8. Prius
While developing the world’s first mass-produced hybrid vehicle, Toyota believed the Prius was going to be the predecessor of the cars of the future. So to name their groundbreaking car, they turned to the Latin word, “prius,” meaning “[to go] before,” the root of our modern word “prior.” And with the growing popularity of hybrid vehicles, it appears they were right about the Prius’ legacy. What they couldn’t have predicted, though, was the controversy the name would create when people want to refer to more than one of the cars. Many think the plural is “Prii”; others believe it should be “Priuses.” Technically, the plural of the Latin word would be “Priora,” which sounds better than the other two choices anyway. The official word from Toyota is that there is no plural form, it’s just “Prius” (sort of like “moose”). But I’m sure they really don’t care what you call them if you’re buying two or more.
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Comments (46)
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I didn’t realize how similar the name “Prius” is to “Priss” until a proud 4×4 owner asked me, “So… How do you like your… Preeeeus?”
posted by Jim Bumgardner on 2-28-2009 at 11:27 pm
If only Nintendo kept the Revolution name, then we wouldn’t have all those jokes.
posted by Palmer on 2-28-2009 at 11:46 pm
It’s a good job that TiVo wasn’t named Bongo, that’s a British slang phrase for pornography.
Well, it depends what you’re recording, I suppose!
posted by Nick on 3-1-2009 at 3:55 am
Interesting list! Dugg it.
posted by Xavier on 3-1-2009 at 11:08 am
Wow, that is some pretty cool stuff dude!
RT
http://www.privacy-center.pro.tc
posted by JOhn Davis on 3-1-2009 at 11:08 am
Obama is holding a Treo, not a blackberry :P
posted by Misha on 3-1-2009 at 11:12 am
Um, i’m from Indonesia and ‘hulu’ doesn’t mean ‘butt’ in our national language. In fact, its real meaning isn’t even anywhere close. ‘Hulu’ literally means ‘upper end’, so an anatomically relevant use of the word would actually be for the head.
posted by Dito on 3-1-2009 at 11:21 am
‘Hulu’ does not mean ‘butt’ in Bahasa Indonesia. In fact, the mistranslation couldn’t be further off: ‘hulu’ literally translates as ‘the upper part of something’, which means that any anatomically relevant use of the word would point to the head, not the butt.
Just wanted to clear things up since it seemed like you used an unchecked ‘fact’ as your main gag. Loved the article :)
I’m from Indonesia by the way, and contrary to popular belief we are not some remote, impoverished third-world country where everyone goes by only one name.
posted by Dito on 3-1-2009 at 11:32 am
Wow sorry for the double post, awful internet connection here.
posted by Dito on 3-1-2009 at 11:35 am
Dito: I wonder if it might be considered slang.
Here’s the source:
Webster’s Dictionary
http://www.websters-online-dictionary.org/translation/Malay/hulu
posted by SpaceMonkeyX on 3-1-2009 at 11:42 am
Doesn’t seem to be any slang i’ve ever heard of. Hehe but i don’t know, maybe some people do interpret ‘hulu’ as ‘butt’ in some of the more remote provinces. It is a large country after all. I checked my english-indonesian dictionary and it defines ‘hulu’ as : 1. upper end (of a pole) 2. hilt 3. top of head. Oh well, i guess you say to-may-to i say to-mah-to. Makes no difference in the end. (did i use that saying right? haha my english is a bit rusty)
posted by Dito on 3-1-2009 at 12:00 pm
Whats a Hulu? The Origins of 8 High-Tech Names | nerdd.net
\r\nYou know the names, but do you know where those names came from? Here are the stories behind the
posted by nerdd.net | news and opinion on 3-1-2009 at 12:59 pm
I would love to know where the Transport for London people got the name “Oyster Card” from when they created the electronic travel passes that work on the tube and bus systems.
posted by Jen - The Alien Spouse on 3-1-2009 at 2:10 pm
Hulu in Hawaiian means feather, for example a lei hulu is a feather lei. It can mean body hair, or fuzzy hair on an animal or plant, but it does not mean head hair, that is lauoho.
posted by Scott Crawford on 3-1-2009 at 2:28 pm
“Despite this often misunderstood word, the website is rapidly becoming one of the biggest names in streaming video. Well, except in Indonesia…”
Or, indeed, anywhere outside the US
posted by remma on 3-1-2009 at 3:44 pm
Another fun fact about the Wii: ii means “good” and W is often pronounced “double” in Japanese. So the Wii is really “double good.”
posted by Lilikka on 3-1-2009 at 4:46 pm
It’ll be interesting to see how many of these words make it in the dictionary or become verbs like Google!
posted by Your Sash Staff on 3-1-2009 at 5:03 pm
I’ve never heard ‘hulu’ used to mean interactive recording in Mandarin before.
Also, Toyota has said that they prefer the term “Prius vehicles” and “Yaris vehicles” when referring to the Prius and Yaris, respectively, in plural.
posted by meng on 3-1-2009 at 5:30 pm
So, “straw” sounded too slow?
1) That’s the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard. I’m zero percent surprised it came out of a marketing meeting.
2) They might not want to keep telling that story, considering they went with “black” presumably because “it sounds fast”. Just saying.
posted by Jeff on 3-1-2009 at 6:55 pm
The TiVo folks did know and hope that their name would become the default word for recording programming on a hard drive.
posted by cybele on 3-1-2009 at 7:21 pm
flickr, like hulu, also chose an unfortunate name since it’s slang for faggot in Dutch.
posted by Lone on 3-1-2009 at 9:27 pm
remma makes a good point. Hulu isn’t available outside of the US – I get frustrated way up here in Canada.
posted by Reese on 3-1-2009 at 9:30 pm
I ain’t no marketing pro, Jeff, but as a poet I can opine that “black” DOES sound faster than “straw”. The ending “k” plosive ends the former word definitively; the ending “aw” of the second drawls the word out, and often becomes a dipthong with a subliminal hint of a second syllable. But that’s not why I would nix the name “StrawBerry” — it’s the cutesy phantom of Strawberry Shortcake that would render me unable to take the product seriously!
posted by VM on 3-1-2009 at 11:57 pm
I’m from Indonesia, and in Indonesia Hulu doesn’t mean butt. The real meaning is upper course of the river, or beginning of something.
posted by dnial on 3-2-2009 at 12:47 am
I just wanted to say, I too am in love with backronym… I’m going to find some reason to use it!
posted by Selah on 3-2-2009 at 12:50 am
As Donald Duck once pointed out, “Goose, Geese. Moose, Meese?” Prius… Pruis?
Hmmm…
posted by Lydia on 3-2-2009 at 1:06 am
isn’t “black”berry racist?
ooops….
nice article by the way
posted by Ashtash on 3-2-2009 at 5:29 am
The Asus idea reminds me of the reason for choosing Linkin Park .
posted by Credit Cards UK on 3-2-2009 at 7:07 am
Cio.com has a list of how 10 famous tech products got their names (including iPod, Twitter, Firefox, and more).
posted by cio slideshow on 3-2-2009 at 9:24 am
I don’t think their translation of Prius to Priora is correct. Prius is a singular masculine noun, so the plural would actually be Prii(with a long i on the second) – just like they said was incorrect.
It’s just like alumnus – alumni or servus – servi.
posted by Emily on 3-2-2009 at 9:31 am
I want to add this to translations of Hulu , in Persian(Farsi) “Hulu” means peach.
posted by Poya on 3-2-2009 at 2:55 pm
i’m no expert here, but prior-prius must have come from greek pro/prin, both meaning before.
posted by heh on 3-2-2009 at 3:01 pm
ie Blackbery/LeapFrog……That name was already taken
posted by katy on 3-2-2009 at 4:13 pm
I thought the Blackberry was named for the extremely bright rabbit in Watership Down.
posted by OKP on 3-2-2009 at 7:11 pm
Great article! Very creative.
posted by [Re]encoded on 3-2-2009 at 7:31 pm
I want to add this to translations of Hulu , in Persian(Farsi) “Hulu” means peach.
posted by sova on 3-3-2009 at 6:57 am
BLUETOOTH
Actually this often-repeated account isn’t correct. It was invented retroactively to explain a blunder. I worked in the PR team that launched Bluetooth in the 1990s, and that was actually a codename given to the project which referenced Ericsson’s three slash blue logo (was my client, and the big cheese steering it all). Some smart tech journos got a whiff of what was going on, and started writing about the concept before it was officially launched, using the only name that was available to them for it – the internal code name. After the name stuck, some smart aleck in PR had to come up with a suitably narrative and lyrical justification and hence the “Norse Legend” crap
posted by Mark on 3-3-2009 at 5:00 pm
Actually, “wiki” comes from Hawaiian pidgin, which is different from the Hawaiian language itself. Hawaiian pidgin was a lingua franca that evolved in a diverse society of speakers of English, Hawaiian, Chinese, Japanese, Portuguese, and other languages. “Wiki” actually comes originally from the English word “quick” (reduplicated in pidgin to “wikiwiki”).
In Hawaiian, the Polynesian language related to Samoan, Tahitian, and Maori, the word for quick was originally “awiawi.”
posted by Simon on 3-3-2009 at 6:07 pm
Emily,
Prius is not like “servus” or “alumnus;” it is not a singular masculine noun of the second declension: It’s actually a singular neuter adjective of the third declension. Since it means “earlier,” it is comparative in form and thus has the “-us” nominative ending. The plural then does become “Priora” as was stated. Consult a solid Latin dictionary for further information.
Interesting article! Thanks, Rob.
posted by Richard on 3-3-2009 at 11:18 pm
backronym… laughed for a few on that one! cool article. thanks!
posted by Firestorm on 3-4-2009 at 7:17 pm
One thing more that most Danes don’t even know – Blaatand means Dark Chief in old norse. But in modern Danish it does sound exactly like Blue Tooth.
posted by Morten G on 3-5-2009 at 2:21 am
After some years Wikipedia may be replaced by Google Knol.
posted by Bifold Doors on 3-6-2009 at 1:19 am
Linux is an interesting story.
Linus Torvalds originally wanted to call it “Freax.” And a lot of your early-versioned Linux source carried that name.
The FTP host didn’t liek the name and put the source code in a folder called Linux.
Guess which name stuck.
posted by Anonymous on 3-10-2009 at 2:55 am
Prius in hungarian (written: priusz) means he/she has a bad record (was in jail before:))
Like the post BTW:)
posted by Zodarr on 4-9-2009 at 3:17 pm
it means “butt.” While these translations are accurate, http://www.crazypurchase.com the folks behind naming hulu.com were inspired by a couple of Mandarin Chinese definitions instead – “interactive recording” and “a hollowed-out gourd used to hold precious things.”
posted by were on 8-27-2009 at 2:45 am
it is comparative in form and thus has the “-us” nominative ending.
posted by xinyun on 10-27-2009 at 9:18 pm