Why JavaScript is called "JavaScript"?

Introduction

Why is JavaScript called "JavaScript" when it has nothing to do with Java? Does it somehow relate to "Java," or was there another reason behind naming the language "JavaScript"? This article will examine the naming story and learn the truth behind the name "JavaScript."

Table of contents

• Birth of JavaScript
• The story behind the name JavaScript
• What about the similarities between Java and JavaScript?

Birth of JavaScript

It all started when Netscape Communications, a company with industry-leading web browsers in the mid-90s, was looking for a way to add client-side functionality to its browser.

Why was it needed? In the 1990s, the internet was very slow, and validating a simple static form took multiple round trips to the server. To incorporate interactivity and client-side functionality, such as form validations, a scripting language that can run directly in the browser was needed.

Brendan Eich created the new scripting language in 1995 at the Netscape Navigator office. Brendan initially named the new language Mocha, but the name was changed to LiveScript before the release of the Netscape Navigator 2 web browser.

The story behind the name JavaScript

Netscape Communications then formed an alliance with Sun Microsystems, which owned Java and was aggressively promoting it. Both parties viewed "LiveScript" as a companion to "Java," with Java handling server-side tasks and LiveScript running in the browser for client-side tasks such as input validation. The name of the new language was once again changed from LiveScript to JavaScript before the launch of Netscape Navigator 2.

What about the similarities between Java and JavaScript?

The superficial resemblance between JavaScript and Java syntax does not originate from shared development but from the fact that both were targeting developers already proficient in the syntax of the predecessor language, C (and, to an extent, C++).