The Story Behind One of Tech's Most Obscure Product Names
Windows, Java, and Zoom are catchy monikers. This one, not so much.
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Let’s face it: PostgreSQL, the widely used database management system, is the kind of name that only a mother can love. A mother who is a database developer.
Not only is it an alphabet soup of a name, with not one but two acronyms — Graphics and Retrieval System (GRES) and Structured Query Language (SQL) — but the “s” is lower case in some usages (Postgres) and upper case in others (PostgreSQL). It’s hard to spell, a mouthful to pronounce, and, for some people, difficult to understand just what it is.
I mean, it’s not Windows or Java or Zoom.
However, we need to uplevel our understanding of PostgreSQL because it’s on the rise in the tech industry, following the recent acquisitions of PostgreSQL startups by Databricks and Snowflake, as well as moves by other vendors including AWS, IBM, and Microsoft. See my post below for details on who’s doing what.
The etymology of ‘PostgreSQL’
The database industry is famous for its quirky names and the stories behind them — Adabas, Mongo, Neo4j, Oracle. In the past, I’ve shared fun facts on the origins of Xata, Yugabyte, and Zilliz.
What about PostgreSQL? Here’s the background, courtesy of Perplexity.
>BEGIN PERPLEXITY QUERY<
Prompt: Where does the name PostgreSQL come from?
Response: The name “PostgreSQL” has its roots in the history of relational database research at the University of California, Berkeley. The story unfolds in two main phases:
1. From Ingres to Postgres
The original system, Ingres (Interactive Graphics and Retrieval System), was a pioneering relational database project led by Professor Michael Stonebreaker in the 1970s at Berkeley. [MY NOTE: The correct spelling is Stonebraker, not Stonebreaker.]
In 1986, Stonebreaker and his team began developing a new database system intended as the successor to Ingres. They named it POSTGRES, which stands for “POST-Ingres,” meaning “after Ingres” or “following Ingres” 1256.
The name was a direct reference to its lineage: “Post-” (after) + “Ingres” (the earlier system), signifying it was the next step in the evolution of database technology at Berkeley 126.
2. From Postgres to PostgreSQL
The original POSTGRES system used its own query language, POSTQUEL, and did not support SQL initially 56.
In 1995, SQL support was added, and the system was briefly called “Postgres95” 6.
In 1996, to reflect its new support for the SQL querying language, the project was renamed PostgreSQL—a combination of “Postgres” and “SQL.” This name highlights both its heritage and its new capabilities 126.
Despite the official name, “Postgres” remains a widely accepted and commonly used abbreviation, as it is easier to pronounce and remember 256.
Summary Table
In short, “PostgreSQL” derives from its predecessor Ingres, with “Postgres” meaning “after Ingres,” and the “SQL” suffix added to signal its support for the SQL standard 1256.
>END PERPLEXITY QUERY<
Ingres cont’d…
You can quickly go down a rabbit hole on this topic. Perplexity associates the original Ingres project with Michael Stonebraker, who at 81 years old, continues to innovate in the database market. His latest venture is a startup called DBOS (for database operating system), launched last year.
DBOS Inc. describes it this way: “DBOS is a new multi-node OS built on a DBMS foundation for today’s cloud-native applications. It replaces 35 year-old Linux, and eliminates the need for container, DBMS, orchestration, and observability layers to enable cloud-native performance.” For more, see my post on “The $100 Billion Database Market.”
And whatever happened to Ingres, you may ask. That, as they say, is “a whole nother story.” It was commercialized, got acquired by Computer Associates, then spun off, then reincarnated as Actian, which itself was acquired by HCL. Today, you can find Actian Ingres here.
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