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

Most programming languages have names that sound like serious engineering projects — Rust, Go, C, Java. And then there’s Python, named after a surreal British comedy troupe that once performed a sketch about a dead parrot. Yes, one of the world’s most popular programming languages owes its name to Monty Python’s Flying Circus.

The Story

In December 1989, Dutch programmer Guido van Rossum was looking for a hobby project to keep him occupied during the Christmas week. He had been working on the Amoeba distributed operating system at Centrum Wiskunde & Informatica (CWI) in the Netherlands and wanted to create an interpreter for a new scripting language. He needed a name that was short, unique, and slightly mysterious.

At the time, Guido was reading the published scripts of Monty Python’s Flying Circus, the BBC comedy series that had taken the world by storm in the 1970s. The irreverent, absurdist humor resonated with him. When he considered what to call his new language, he wanted something that broke the mold of sterile, academic-sounding names like “ABC” (his previous language project) or “Pascal.”

Python fit perfectly. It was short, memorable, and carried a whiff of snake-related danger — but the true reference was far more playful. The name was intentionally irreverent, a subtle nod that this language didn’t take itself too seriously. As van Rossum later said, “I chose Python as a working title for the project, being in a slightly irreverent mood (and a big fan of Monty Python’s Flying Circus).”

How It Evolved

The name stuck immediately and never changed. As Python grew from a personal Christmas project into a language used by NASA, Google, and Instagram, the Monty Python references multiplied. The standard library is filled with them: “spam” and “eggs” are used as placeholder variable names throughout the official documentation (a reference to the “Spam” sketch), and the __future__ module is named after a Monty Python sketch about a “future” that never arrives.

The Python Software Foundation logo features a two-tone blue and yellow design of intertwined snakes, but earlier versions leaned harder into the Monty Python connection — the Python.org homepage has featured Python-themed references over the years, and conferences like PyCon often include Monty Python-themed talks, stickers, and Easter eggs.

Why not “Monty” or “Circus”? Those names were considered too long or too generic. “Python” struck the perfect balance — a single word that was immediately Googleable (a term that didn’t exist yet), distinctive, and carried just enough mystery to make people ask, “What’s the story behind that name?”

Did You Know?

Guido van Rossum’s original 1989 filesystem for the project was labeled /usr/local/bin/python before the language had even been publicly released. The name was so settled in his mind that he never seriously considered an alternative. Python is also one of the few programming languages named after a comedy show — along with languages like INTERCAL (a parody language) and LOLCODE (based on lolcats).

FAQ

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