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How 10 Iconic Tech Products Got Their Names

From iPod and BlackBerry to Twitter and Wikipedia, we take a look at the processes and the people that came up with the names for these famous tech products.

Thomas Wailgum, CIO

How 10 Iconic Tech Products Got Their Names 1 of 11

Coming up with a great technology product or service is only half the battle these days. Creating a name for said product that is at once cool but not too cool or exclusionary, marketable to both early adopters and a broader audience, and, of course, isn't already in use and protected by various trademarks and copyright laws is difficult—to say the least.

The makers of these 10 tech products—the iPod, BlackBerry, Firefox, Twitter, Windows 7, ThinkPad, Android, Wikipedia, Mac OS X and the "Big Cats," and Red Hat Linux—all have displayed certain amounts marketing savvy, common sense and fun-loving spirit in settling on their products' names. Here are the intriguing, surprising and sometimes predictable accounts of their creation.

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