Google’s name originates from a misspelling of “googol,” a mathematical term for 10 raised to the power of 100. Founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, initially calling their search engine BackRub, sought a more appealing name. During brainstorming, Page misspelt “googol” as “Google” and preferred its playful sound.
The story of how Google got its name (Representational image, generated with AI)
We are so accustomed to the name ‘Google’ that we sometimes forget that it is not a common word. Some people believe it to be an acronym for “Global Organisation of Oriented Group Language of Earth.” However, that is not the case. The name Google is actually a play on the mathematical term “googol”, which originally emerged as a typo.
The origin of Google
Larry Page and Sergey Brin, the founders of Google, were Stanford students when they began working on a new search engine. Their original project name was BackRub as it used backlinks for search. However, they decided to designate a catchier name for the mass appeal.
While brainstorming, someone suggested them the name “Googol”, a mathematical term for 10 raised to the power of 100 or digit 1 followed by one hundred zeros. When Page checked with a techie to see if this domain name was available, he misspelt the name and checked for “Google” instead. Page realised that he preferred the playful sound of the misspelt word and so the search engine was named Google.
The origin of Googol
The term Googol was coined in 1920 by 9-year-old Milton Sirotta, the nephew of American mathematician Edward Kasner. According to Merriam-Webster, Kasner asked Sirotta to invent a word for the number 1 followed by 100 zeros. The boy came up with “googol”. The term was adopted by Kasner and other mathematicians, eventually becoming part of the language.
It is speculated that Sirotta took inspiration from an American comic strip — Barney Google and Snuffy Smith — to coin the term Googol. The Google in Barney’s name seems to have referred to the “Goo-Goo-Googly Eyes”. The comic was launched on June 17, 1919, and completed a century in 2019.
It is fascinating to see Google getting its name from Googol, which could have originated from the word Google itself.
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