Why Is It Called 'Google'? — The Origin of the Name

One of the most valuable brands in the world began as a typo. The name “Google” is a misspelling of “googol” — the mathematical term for 10 followed by 100 zeros — and it perfectly captured the ambition of two Stanford PhD students who wanted to organize the world’s seemingly infinite information.

The Story

In 1996, Larry Page and Sergey Brin were PhD students at Stanford University working on a research project called “Backrub.” The name was literal — their PageRank algorithm analyzed “back links” to determine how important a web page was. It was descriptive, ugly, and had unfortunate connotations.

By 1997, it became clear Backrub was more than a research project. The search engine was vastly outperforming existing options like AltaVista and Yahoo. The founders needed a new name — something that reflected the scale of what they were building.

During a brainstorming session, someone suggested “googol” — the mathematical term for 10^100 (1 followed by 100 zeros), coined by mathematician Edward Kasner in 1938 and popularized in his book Mathematics and the Imagination. The term was perfect: it represented the vast, seemingly infinite amount of information on the web that their search engine aimed to organize.

When Page checked whether the domain name was available, he made a typo — he searched for “google.com” instead of “googol.com.” He liked the misspelling. It was whimsical, easy to remember, and most importantly, the domain wasn’t taken. On September 15, 1997, google.com was registered. A typo became one of the most valuable domain names in history.

How It Evolved

The name “Google” became synonymous with search itself. “Googling” entered the English language as a verb — a rare honor for any brand. The company’s headquarters, the Googleplex, played on the name with “plex” from “complex” creating a portmanteau that also evoked “googolplex” (10^10^100 — a number so large it can’t be physically written down).

The company’s corporate philosophy — “Don’t Be Evil” — was paired with a brand identity that embraced the playful, slightly whimsical spirit of the name. Google Doodles, April Fools’ pranks, and colorful logos all reflected the energy of a company named after a typo.

The original Backrub name lives on only in the footnotes of internet history. The domain backrub.com was used for years as a redirect to Google. In 2021, when Google restructured under Alphabet, the “Backrub” name was briefly displayed as a hidden Easter egg in the corporate structure page.

Did You Know?

Edward Kasner’s 9-year-old nephew Milton Sirotta actually coined the word “googol” in 1938 when his uncle asked him to think of a name for a very large number. The child’s invention became the inspiration for one of the world’s most valuable brands. Sean Anderson, the Stanford student who participated in the naming brainstorming session, is credited with suggesting “googol” during the meeting.

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