[linkmotif]

You’re getting caught up in the “graph” part. GraphQL is unfortunately named, because it doesn’t actually have any “graph” related semantics or features in the graph database sense. The “graph” in GraphQL just refers to the fact that you can use it to retrieve nested data. On the other hand, SPARQL and Tinkerpop (the “true GraphQL” imo) are actually about graphs and related data in the graph database/semantic web sense. GraphQL and SPARQL have nothing to do with each other.

[magic_quotes]

I'm pretty sure the "Graph" part refers to the Facebook's social graph. They already have (REST'ish RPC) Graph API, so there is a precedent here.