Techie Baby Names: Do they compute?

In a recent issue of PCWorld magazine, JR Raphael wrote an interesting and amusing article highlighting ten tech-inspired baby names.  He was kind enough to give us permission to use some of his examples and add more of our own—names that might provide some extra inspiration to some techie parents out there without sounding as weird as, say, Audio Science.  So no, we’re not suggesting dot.com or Tweet or even Apple.

Conveniently for us, many computer programming languages were given people names, including those in this list of techie baby names with no ID following the name.

GIRLS

Ada—computer programming language, probably named in honor of Ada Lovelace, (born Augusta Ada, daughter of Lord Byron), considered to be the first programmer.

Agnes—a computer in the original Twilight Zone TV series

Alice

Claire

Claris—a company producing Apple software

Dell

Dora—a starship computer in Robert Heinlein’s Time Enough for Love

Grace—Rear Admiral Grace Murray Hopper was a pioneering computer scientist whose work led to the development of one of the first modern programming languages.

Hope

Jaina

Kaya

Leda

Lilo

Lisa—the first personal computer with a graphical interface, 1983, made by Apple, and the name of Steve Jobs’s daughter, born that year

Lotus—a software corporation associated with IBM

Lucy—computer in Hackers

Maya

Minerva—a starship computer in Robert Heinlein’s Time Enough for Love

Mirah

Miranda

Perl

Pixel

Rosetta

Ruby

Vala

Veronica

BOYS

Abel

Ajax

Alef—computer programming language (wonder if Natalie Portman knows about this)

Alfie—shipboard computer in Barbarella

Apollo—company that unveiled the first work station in 1981

Archie– name of the first internet search engine

Bertrand

Cecil

Cray—Seymour Cray designed the first  supercomputer

Draco

Darwin—an Apple computer operating system

Dylan

Felix

Gabriel—an AI computer in James Rollins’s novel Deep Fathom

HAL—the computer in the novel and film 2001: A Space Odyssey

Hugo

Jarvis—acronym for Just a Rather Very Intelligent System in Iron Man

Jensen—a brand of computer

Joshua—a subprogram in WarGames

Joss

Leaf

Linus

Lynx

Mac

Macintosh

Oberon

Osborne—Adam Osborne made the first true  portable computer in 1981

Pascal—computer language honoring Blaise Pascal who, among other things, invented the first workable automatic calculator

Rex

Sebastian

Zeno

Ziggy—a hybrid computer from Quantum Leap

There are lots more examples of tech-related names in comics, graphic novels and computer and video games, but we’ll leave it at this for now–unless you want to add some more ideas of your own.

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