[vicaya]

How about this 4-letter acronym: NSQL (Native Storage Query Language)?

[tmountain]

I think this might be a misnomer in that NoSQL in the general sense describes a set of technologies acting as value stores rather than a standardized language for accessing said values.

[vicaya]

Native storage query language implies using native i.e., non-standardized query language and API. It's an categorical acronym like AJAX.

[scott_s]

There's a difference between SQL and RDBMS. One can interact with a relational database using a "non-standardized query language and API." Part of the problem is that people are conflating the language abstraction of SQL with the physical relationship of the data.

[zck]

I like the name posted by someone in the comments -- NoTable.

[btilly]

So Bigtable would be a NoTable storage system? I think not!

[davidmathers]

Exactly. Relation != Table. Tables can represent things other than relations.