The world was forever changed when Google was launched in 1998. Co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, students at Stanford University, developed the search algorithm originally known as “BackRub.”

They liked wordplay so they then changed the name to Googol, the number 1 followed by 100 zeros, which was picked to signify that the search engine would provide large quantities of information. “Google” was a spelling error, but they liked it better and went with it.

In 2015 Google rolled out a new organizational structure it called Alphabet. Page explained:

We liked the name Alphabet because it means a collection of letters that represent language, one of humanity’s most important innovations, and is the core of how we index with Google search! We also like that it means alpha-bet (Alpha is investment return above benchmark), which we strive for!

That would certainly apply to Google.