The Origins of 8 Nonsensical Tech Names

Like the pharmaceutical industry, Silicon Valley is adept at inventing memorable brand names for its products from unusual, unexpected, and often nonsensical sources. Here's how eight familiar tech companies, platforms, and gadgets got their names.

1. Skype
2. Reddit
3. eBay
4. Kindle
5. Woot
6. Etsy
7. Bing
8. The Daily Beast

Skype

Microsoft decided to retire this venerable video communication platform in early 2025. But it started out as an innovative concept in 2003: A company with a strange name sought to harness the ubiquity of webcams to bring the dream of internet-based video and phone service to the masses. But what does the name Skype have to do with talking to other people online?

Skype was a peer-to-peer communication technology, meaning one person connected to another person, via the Skype service. To the average user, the connection is happening in a mysterious, ethereal realm. So, when its developers were brainstorming the name, they hit upon the rather descriptive Sky peer-to-peer, which was shortened to Skyper. When the company went to register the web address for their new product, skyper.com and the other dot-something variations were already taken. The r was dropped and, sure enough, skype.com was available.

Reddit

The name Reddit is little more than a play on the phrase read it, as in, “I read it online.” But, as one user of the site pointed out, there is a Latin parallel to the site’s name that turned out to be a pretty cool coincidence. A loose translation of reddit is “render,” which can mean “to submit for consideration or approval,” which is exactly what people do on the site.

eBay

Whether you’re cleaning out the attic or looking for a deal on your next must-have gadget, there’s a good chance you’ll to wander over to eBay. Where did this name for the e-commerce powerhouse come from?

There’s a legend surrounding the founding of eBay. It was widely believed that software developer Pierre Omidyar, then 28, created a website called AuctionWeb in 1995 just so that his fiancée could buy and sell collectible PEZ dispensers. While the PEZ part isn’t true—Omidyar was simply looking for a way to make something cool online—it does make for a good story. The first item sold on eBay was anything but glamorous: it was a broken laser pointer. Omidyar intended the laser pointer listing only as a test, but was surprised to find that someone actually bought it. According to legend, the buyer collected broken laser pointers.

Thinking he might be on to something, Omidyar started working in earnest on the program. While contemplating names for the site, he initially planned to use the name of his computer consulting company, Echo Bay. However, echobay.com was already taken. He shortened the name to eBay and bought the web address that we all know today.

Kindle

E-readers hit the mainstream in the 2010s, with the Kindle from Amazon leading the charge. The name is not meant to be a dig at paper books (as in “kindling” for a fire). The company says the name refers to an intellectual fire of new ideas that could spread among readers who have quick and easy access to Amazon’s vast digital holdings.

Woot

You may know woot is an expression of excitement (and is sometimes spelled w00t). According to Matt Rutledge, founder/CEO of Woot.com, that’s where the company got its name, but it goes a bit deeper than that.

“The company Woot was designed from the ground up to fit that name and adapt itself as a public 'employee store' type of liquidation retailer,” Rutledge has said. “What type of store would you load up and say ‘w00t!’ to? Answer ... that would be what we built and strive every day to reach.”

But where does w00t come from? That’s a bit of a mystery. Some believe it first appeared in the mid-90s, adopted from the songs “Whoomp! (There It Is!)” and “Whoot! There It Is!” Others define it as the acronym “We Owned the Other Team,” originating as a victory cry for online gamers. Still others say it comes from the old hacker phrase w00t! I have root!, used whenever someone has gained full, or “root,” access to a server.

Whatever the origin, there are a few important distinctions between w00t! and Woot. The company name does not have the zeros replacing the Os, and the exclamation point is only used in the logo or when there is genuine cause for excitement.

Etsy

For a while, the company was pretty tight-lipped about the origin of Etsy, leaving users to come up with their own acronyms or explanations. Founder Rob Kalin finally revealed the secret in a January 2010 interview for Reader's Digest. “I wanted a nonsense word because I wanted to build the brand from scratch,” he said. “I was watching Fellini’s 8 ½ and writing down what I was hearing. In Italian, you say etsi a lot. It means ‘oh, yes.’ And in Latin, it means ‘and if.’”

Bing

When Microsoft was developing the name for its search engine, it wanted something that was a single syllable, memorable, and easy to spell. Once marketers got into the naming process, there were other things to consider as well. For example, one idea—bang—was rejected because you couldn’t make a verb out of it without sounding inappropriate.

The marketers decided to put their money on bing. Not only was it a single syllable, easy to spell, and easy to remember, it also sounded like bingo, which is usually said when you’ve found what you’re looking for. The name also reminded people of the moment an idea is hatched, sort of like when that little light bulb goes off over a cartoon character’s head. You hear a “bing,” which is what Microsoft hopes will happen when you use its search. In China, the website is called bì yìng, which means “very certain to answer.” But Bing’s detractors are quick to suggest that the name is really an acronym: Bing Is Not Google.

The Daily Beast

What does a ferocious-sounding animal have to do with the news? The Daily Beast is the name of a newspaper in Evelyn Waugh’s 1938 novel Scoop, the favorite book of the website’s founder and former editor-in-chief, Tina Brown. Scoop, a biting satire of journalism, tells the story of a young writer sent to Africa as a foreign correspondent after he is mistaken for a similarly named, well-respected novelist. While there, a civil war breaks out and the naïve reporter accidentally does a great job covering the conflict.

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A version of this story was published in 2011; it has been updated for 2025.