Re: Quick questions about postgres name?

Tom Lane <tgl@sss.pgh.pa.us>

From: Tom Lane <tgl@sss.pgh.pa.us>
To: "Dan Mahoney (Gushi)" <postgres@gushi.org>
Cc: pgsql-general@lists.postgresql.org
Date: 2025-09-23T04:17:03Z
Lists: pgsql-general
"Dan Mahoney (Gushi)" <postgres@gushi.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