How Tech Giants Got Their Names: The Stories Behind Apple, Intel & More

Ever wondered, how tech companies got their names? Why does the Apple logo have a bite or why Cisco’s logo looks like a suspension bridge or do you know that Sun in Sun Microsystems is an abbreviation? Or before Intel commercializes a chip, it was often code-named after prominent places in Israel or other landmarks. Let’s look at the backstory behind some of the tech giants, we often hear daily.

Naming a company is a deeply human act. It reflects what it stands for—in just one word. Major brands chose their names based on core brand philosophy, often aiming to forge a deep emotional connection with customers. The names range from quirky to accidental, and in some cases, downright brilliant—or even a stroke of genius.

So let's look at what’s behind a name.

Apple

Once a fruit, now one of the most valuable tech companies in the world. Many urban legends float around Mac forums, but the closest we can get to decoding its name and logo seems to trace back to Steve Jobs’s fruitarian diet.

According to Walter Isaacson’s official biography of Steve Jobs, published in 2011, Jobs had embraced a fruitarian lifestyle. It so happens that he named his company Apple after one of his regular sojourns to a fruit farm. The logic? It was fun, spirited, and not intimidating.

And here’s a bit of business brilliance: the name Apple appeared ahead of Atari in the phone book. It might seem trivial today, but back then, being earlier alphabetically meant more visibility—even though Jobs had worked at Atari in the mid-1970s.

The name is fine, one may wonder, but why is there a bite in the Apple logo. That’s interesting. It is stated that in 1977 when designer Rob Janoff created the Apple logo, he wanted it to be an Apple, not a Cherry looking fruit ( an Apple looked like a Cherry in full form), so he came out with a brilliant idea, retain the same size, yet the logo looks Apple with a bite, and add to that, tech is ruled by ‘byte’ and in this case, the 'bite' in the Apple is symbolic of its tech polarization.

Google

We all know that Google has a Stanford connection and its research project was actually called - Googol (a 1 followed by 100 zeros) to reflect the huge volume of information they hoped to organize. But a domain name error made it ‘Google’ and rest is history. A mistake that made history.

SUN Microsystems

The yesteryear icon is a legend in its own right. SUN stands for Stanford University Network. Seeded by four graduates, the company began building workstations and, for years, dominated the UNIX space with its SPARC/Solaris combo, giving stiff competition to IBM AIX and HP-UX. Sadly, Sun Microsystems was sunset after it was acquired by Oracle.

Amazon

Do you know, Jeff Bezos originally coined Cadabra- but it sounded like - Cadaver- not a good vibe for sure. Then, given the agile nature of the business, Bezos wanted something exotic, and named it after the Amazon river, the largest in the world. Here’s is one logo trivia, the smile you see in the Amazon logo actually denotes a A-Z stretch – signifying the depth of the product it sells.

Microsoft

This is a more straight-jacketed one, the name is a mix of microcomputer and software. In 1975, Microsoft Co-founder Paul Allen coined the name, when personal computing was the domain of science fiction. As the company evolved, its logo morphed into four squares. It means : Windows, Office, Xbox, and Azure — all under one digital window.

Cisco

This is pure Bay area tech company, and what better way to take the San Francisco suffix and make it Cisco and the logo represents the iconic SFO landmark- the Golden Gate Bridge.

Spotify

As the world’s most popular audio streaming subscription service, Spotify boasts more than 675 million users—including 263 million subscribers—across over 180 markets. A humongous achievement, no doubt.

But did you know that, much like Google, the name Spotify was more accidental than deliberate? One of the founders reportedly misheard the word during a brainstorming session—and it just clicked. Later, an unconfirmed story claimed that they retrofitted a meaning: Spot and Identify—to align with the brand philosophy.

And here's a fact: the three curved lines in the Spotify logo represent sound waves.

Alibaba

Jack Ma wanted a viral name—something that connects instantly. And what better phrase than “Open Sesame”? He was inspired by Ali Baba from the Arabian Nights tale. After all, we often discover rare things online, and Alibaba, as an e-commerce platform, reflects that spirit of uncovering hidden treasures. That’s the brand philosophy behind its name.

Oracle

t’s a name that suggests seeing the future. But originally, the company was called Software Development Laboratories (SDL) when it was founded in 1977. It was later renamed Oracle, inspired by the founders’ earlier work on a classified CIA project of the same name. The brand connection lies in the idea that just as an oracle offers visions of the future, the company delivers data-driven insights to help shape it.

Intel

This is an interesting one, did you know, the founders coined the word “Moore Noyce”, but the rhyming sounded like ‘More Noise’, and later they drew inspiration from Integrated Electronics and shortned it to 'Intel’, also reflecting intelligence. Here’s is another trivia, some of Intel Chip code names often tell where the Chip was born?

Take the case of processors like Core i5 or Pentium, their code names are associated with the R&D Labs that developed them.  For instance, numerous mobile and low-power chips were developed in a place called Haifa in Israel, and their internal code names reflect that:

• Yonah (used for Intel Centrino): Hebrew for “dove”
• Banias, Merom, Carmel: Names of rivers or regions in Israel
• Kiryat Gat: A city where Intel has a major fabrication plant

Remember, it’s not always Hebrew — chips that are developed in the U.S. in some instances carry sometimes names like Nehalem, Sandy Bridge, or Skylake, often inspired by American places, nature, or bridges.

Red Hat (Now an IBM subsidiary)

A note from the Red Hat website reads: “Do you know the story behind our name? Our co-founder Marc Ewing used to wear his grandfather’s red Cornell lacrosse cap in his college computer lab, and people would say, ‘If you need help, look for the guy in the red hat.’”

SAP

So in German, Systeme, Anwendungen und Produkte in der Datenverarbeitung” — or Systems, Applications and Products in Data Processing. SAP was founded by five ex-IBM engineers in Germany.

So the next time you Google something, order from Amazon, or update your phone, remember: that every name starts with an idea. Sometimes weird. Occasionally wonderful. But always, unmistakably human.