[dansalvato]

Zig apparently got its name from this: https://gist.github.com/andrewrk/73742bf4b8ed795c85ce

Just rolled the dice on 'z' + vowel + consonant + consonant until something good came up.

[Dwedit]

Is that real? There are plenty of references to Zero Wing on the website for the Zig language.

[dansalvato]

The gist I linked is shared by Andrew Kelley, creator of the language. My best guess is that he rolled something similar to 'zig' and was reminded of the Zero Wing reference before deciding to take off with Zig (for great justice).