[msla]

More evidence that the best names are short, pronounceable, and meaningless, like Hadoop. Git almost qualifies, except for the fact it's a pejorative, so using a really obscure or off-the-wall word is almost as good.

Marketers were forced into this by trademarks, but it shouldn't take the threat of a trademark lawsuit to convince you that stepping too close to something else's toes is annoying for everyone.

(And don't be afraid to go with words that have negative meanings: Aside from git, MUMPS has been a successful medical records database environment for decades.)

[saganus]

How is Git pejorative?

I haven't heard that word used like that, but I've only heard it to refer to the vcs.

[nneonneo]

The word “git” as a pejorative (calling someone unpleasant, e.g. “Linus Torvalds is such a git”) long predates the VCS. Linus himself chose the name for the VCS partly due to the meaning, sarcastically remarking that he was naming another project after himself (first Linux, then Git). See the Wikipedia entry for more detail: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Git#Naming

[saganus]

Interesting, thanks!