What's In A Name: Tech Talk牛掰科技公司的名字探源In the modern world we occupy, tech company names like Google, Yahoo, Amazon, eBay and others are a part of our daily life and conversations. Some of them, like Google, become synonymous with the act itself. If you need to search something, you “just Google it,” which is much like what happened to Xerox when copiers came into vogue. Have you ever stopped to consider where some of these names came from, and what their meanings are? Take a look! 要是你想查找什么英文信息，恐怕都都会说google一下。但是，大家是否想过，这些公司的名字当初又是怎么来的。今天我们就来一探究竟！ 1. Google（谷歌）As we all know, this company has pretty much redefined how people get things done on a day-to-day basis. But Google wasn't its original name. The Google corporate history mentions that in 1996, Stanford students Larry Page and Sergei Brin created a search engine and called it “BackRub.” Their first logo was Larry Page's hand. Google的诞生，改变了我们的生活。但是，大家可能不知道的是，Google最初并不叫Google，而是BackRub，而且它的logo也不是如今的模样，而是其创始人Larry Page的手掌图样。 The name Google is a play on the mathematical term “googol,” which is a 1 followed by 100 zeros—and it was a total accident. As the story goes, Page was in his Stanford office with some other grad students. One of them, Sean Anderson, suggested “Googolplex” and Page liked the shortened version, “Googol.” Anderson then did a domain name search, but spelled it “Google,” and that domain was available. Page snagged it, and that got the ball rolling. Google其实是数学里的概念googol（古戈尔，即十的一百次方），Google公司的命名纯属偶然。据说，有一天当Larry Page和一些研究生待在办公室时，有个叫Sean Anderson的学生建议公司命名为Googolplex，而Page偏好的是其缩略形式Googol。于是，Anderson就用Googol搜索域名，但他输入的是Google，结果发现有这个域名可用，于是Page就拍板启用Google这个名字了！ 2. Yahoo（雅虎）Like Google, this venerable (and beleaguered) web portal was created in January of 1994 by a pair of Stanford grad students, Jerry Yang and David Filo. Original name: “Jerry and David's Guide to the World Wide Web.” Just a few months later, they changed the name to Yahoo. The “backcronym” for this is “Yet Another Hierarchical Officious Oracle.” According to the History of Yahoo Wikipedia entry, “they insisted they had selected the name because they liked the word's general definition, as in Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift: ‘rude, unsophisticated, uncouth.'” Yahoo最初名叫“Jerry and David's Guide to the World Wide Web”，后来改为了Yahoo。而这个词其实最早出现在斯威夫特的《格利佛游记》，指一种粗俗、低级的人形动物。两位创始人“反其义而用之”，重新给这个名字做了定义，即Yet Another Hierarchical Officious Oracle。其含义是：在强调平权的因特网上，大家都是乡吧佬——这简直是神谕（oracle）！ The Yahoo name is about to change, however. According to NPR, if the sale of core assets to Verizon goes through, what's left will be called “Altaba,” which is a combination of the words “Alternate” and “Alibaba.” The New York Times mentions that “Altaba” is very close to the name “Al-Taba,” which is the name of a scissors maker in Pakistan. 因为阿里巴巴，Yahoo还差点改名为Altaba；据说这个名字很像Al-Taba，和巴基斯坦的一个剪刀工匠的名字相同。 小编倒是觉得这个名字可以理解为是：阿里他爸（Al-Taba），毕竟多少是有那么点意思：） 3. eBay（易贝）Another website that has changed the way people buy and sell online, eBay's name is merely a shortened version of the founder's first choice. Wikipedia says when Pierre Omidyar was launching the site, it was owned by his consulting firm, “Echo Bay Technology Group.” However, when he tried for that domain name, it was already taken by Echo Bay Mines, a gold mining company. So he just shortened it down to his second choice, eBay. eBay的名字来源倒是更具个人色彩。据Wikipedia记载，eBay创始人Pierre Omidyar当初准备启用网站时，发现这个原本属于他的咨询公司的域名原来早就被一个叫做Echo Bay Mines的淘金公司给占有了。于是，Pierre干脆就把公司域名简称为eBay了。 这倒是挺符合当下的公司域名的命名尽量从简的特点的！ 3. Apple（苹果）Cult Of Mac cites the definitive Steve Jobs bio from Walter Isaacson for the answer to this one. Walter says about Steve, “on the naming of Apple, he said he was ‘on one of my fruitarian diets.’ He said he had just come back from an apple farm, and thought the name sounded ‘fun, spirited and not intimidating.'” 这么伟大的公司，以及个人色彩那么浓厚的创始人，终究决定了其命名的个人色彩也很浓——竞然仅仅是因为乔帮主刚刚从苹果农场回来，然后觉得这个名字听上去“有意思、很生动、不唬人”。 Whether you find apples intimidating or otherwise is a personal inclination, but either way, the name isn't going anywhere. It's particularly fascinating when a brand takes a word, especially an unrelated noun, that already has a definition and then makes it their own. 苹果公司的命名充分说明一个道理，公司名字本身不重要，重要的是公司最终成功了，所以名字也就显得有故事了。 4. Amazon（亚马逊）The ubiquitous e-tailer was almost called “Cadabra,” as in “Abracadabra.” Mashable says Bezos then went with “Amazon” after his lawyer thought he said “Cadaver,” which would easily have gone down as the worst start-up name ever. The story mentions that the name “Amazon” suggests a large scale, and since website listings were often A-Z back in the day, “Amazon” would be towards the top of the list. Wikipedia also says Bezos considered calling it “Relentless” but friends thought that was “sinister.” Bezos bought the domain Relentless.com anyway, and it still redirects to Amazon. Bonus factoid: the smile in their logo refers to the fact they sell everything from A-Z. 第一次看到Amazon，自然不会先想到购物，而是那条横贯南美东西大陆的大河。但自从Amazon公司诞生之后，再看到Amazon，脑子里恐怕就只会出现订单和包裹了。 然而，这个公司的命名也是几经更改，从Cadabra到Cadaver到Amazon到Relentless又到Amazon，总归说明亚马逊河还是帮上忙了，因为河流很大，可以说明亚马逊公司的规模也大，而且大家如果够细心的话，你会发现它的公司logo上从a到z的构成的那个笑脸，就是要告诉你，亚马逊公司什么都可以买到（货物清单一般都是按字母顺序从A到Z排列的）。 5. SkypeWhen the makers of the popular video chat program were trying to come up with a name, Mental Floss says they came up with “Sky peer to peer.” That was shortened to “Skyper” but that domain was taken. You see a pattern- if you have an idea for a new product, grab the domain before you've even made the product! So Skype.com it was. 这个软件没有中文译名，但其名字一样得响亮。 只是，Skype公司的创始人当初命名是原本是想取义于“Sky peer to peer”，并简称为Skyper。然而，当他准备注册域名时，发现下手还是晚了，于是才有了Skype——原本想要的r没了！ 看来，有了想法之后，就得马上行动，否则就会错失良机：） 如果觉得好，欢迎继续关注廖怀宝的原创微信订阅号“新概念英语的教与学”！
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