The Strange Roots

Chrome 🏎️

Chrome, the web browser developed by Google, was named because of its association with racing cars and speed.

Glen Murphy, one of the designers, revealed Chrome was chosen after a naming competition. "The names that came out of that competition were so terrible that we were all pretty happy when one of the leads overrode it and declared that the codename would be 'Chrome', presumably because he likes fast cars."

They decided to stick with the name because of the associations with speed "like shiny fast engines and cars" and in design terminology, chrome refers to the non-webpage parts of the browser's interface such as the toolbars, tabs and buttons.

Root: The word chrome, or chromium in its Latin form, stems from the Greek khrōma meaning ‘colour’. Louis Nicolas Vauquelin, who discovered it in 1797, chose the name because of the brilliant colours of its compounds.

Sources: Quora | Oxford English Dictionary