Programmers and software developers lost the plot on naming their tools

Software developers have abandoned descriptive naming conventions in favor of arbitrary, whimsical names for tools and libraries. Unlike other engineering disciplines where names convey function (I-beams, butterfly valves, IUPAC nomenclature), modern software is filled with meaningless names like Cobra, Viper, and Melody that force developers to constantly context-switch and look up documentation. This cognitive tax wastes time and mental energy across the industry. Early computing followed better patterns (grep, sed, FORTRAN, COBOL), but around the 2010s, startup culture and GitHub popularized quirky naming. The solution is cultural: prioritize clarity over creativity, use descriptive compound terms, and reserve cute names for mascots rather than the tools themselves.