Re: Quick questions about postgres name?

From: Tom Lane <tgl(at)sss(dot)pgh(dot)pa(dot)us>
To: "Dan Mahoney (Gushi)" <postgres(at)gushi(dot)org>
Cc: pgsql-general(at)lists(dot)postgresql(dot)org
Subject: Re: Quick questions about postgres name?
Date: 2025-09-23 04:17:03
Message-ID: 3017587.1758601023@sss.pgh.pa.us
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"Dan Mahoney (Gushi)" <postgres(at)gushi(dot)org> writes:
> It makes mention of the original professor who spearheaded the project
> under a DARPA grant, but it would probably do well to know where the name
> came from.

You should read Joe Hellerstein's recollections [1]. But tl;dr: the
origin of the name is the old INGRES database system; Postgres was
then named Post-inGres. There are also some references to PostQUEL
referring to the ancient QUEL (QUEry Language) project [2].

regards, tom lane

[1] https://arxiv.org/pdf/1901.01973
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QUEL_query_languages

regards, tom lane

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