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Quick questions about postgres name?
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* Quick questions about postgres name?
@ 2025-09-23 04:06 Dan Mahoney (Gushi) <[email protected]>
  2025-09-23 04:16 ` Re: Quick questions about postgres name? Pavel Stehule <[email protected]>
  2025-09-23 04:17 ` Re: Quick questions about postgres name? Tom Lane <[email protected]>
  2025-09-23 04:19 ` Re: Quick questions about postgres name? Adrian Klaver <[email protected]>
  0 siblings, 3 replies; 5+ messages in thread

From: Dan Mahoney (Gushi) @ 2025-09-23 04:06 UTC (permalink / raw)
  To: [email protected]

Hey there folks,

The manual contains a "Brief History" of postgres and notes that the name 
Postgres was retained as an official name after Postgres95 added official 
SQL support, and because 95 wouldn't stand the test of time.

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.

If there's somewhere where this should be suggested, let me know.

(Wikipedia has some of this history -- 
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ingres_(database))

-Dan

-- 







^ permalink  raw  reply  [nested|flat] 5+ messages in thread

* Re: Quick questions about postgres name?
  2025-09-23 04:06 Quick questions about postgres name? Dan Mahoney (Gushi) <[email protected]>
@ 2025-09-23 04:16 ` Pavel Stehule <[email protected]>
  2 siblings, 0 replies; 5+ messages in thread

From: Pavel Stehule @ 2025-09-23 04:16 UTC (permalink / raw)
  To: Dan Mahoney (Gushi) <[email protected]>; +Cc: [email protected]

Hi

Ășt 23. 9. 2025 v 6:07 odesĂ­latel Dan Mahoney (Gushi) <[email protected]>
napsal:

> Hey there folks,
>
> The manual contains a "Brief History" of postgres and notes that the name
> Postgres was retained as an official name after Postgres95 added official
> SQL support, and because 95 wouldn't stand the test of time.
>
> 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.
>
> If there's somewhere where this should be suggested, let me know.
>
> (Wikipedia has some of this history --
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ingres_(database))
>

I wrote an article about PostgreSQL history
https://postgres.cz/wiki/Historie_projektu_PostgreSQL

It is in Czech language, but google translator almost works for translation
from Czech to English.

There is a list of used literature



> -Dan
>
> --
>
>
>
>


^ permalink  raw  reply  [nested|flat] 5+ messages in thread

* Re: Quick questions about postgres name?
  2025-09-23 04:06 Quick questions about postgres name? Dan Mahoney (Gushi) <[email protected]>
@ 2025-09-23 04:17 ` Tom Lane <[email protected]>
  2025-09-23 14:03   ` Re: Quick questions about postgres name? Achilleas Mantzios <[email protected]>
  2 siblings, 1 reply; 5+ messages in thread

From: Tom Lane @ 2025-09-23 04:17 UTC (permalink / raw)
  To: Dan Mahoney (Gushi) <[email protected]>; +Cc: [email protected]

"Dan Mahoney (Gushi)" <[email protected]> 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






^ permalink  raw  reply  [nested|flat] 5+ messages in thread

* Re: Quick questions about postgres name?
  2025-09-23 04:06 Quick questions about postgres name? Dan Mahoney (Gushi) <[email protected]>
  2025-09-23 04:17 ` Re: Quick questions about postgres name? Tom Lane <[email protected]>
@ 2025-09-23 14:03   ` Achilleas Mantzios <[email protected]>
  0 siblings, 0 replies; 5+ messages in thread

From: Achilleas Mantzios @ 2025-09-23 14:03 UTC (permalink / raw)
  To: [email protected]


On 9/23/25 05:17, Tom Lane wrote:
> "Dan Mahoney (Gushi)" <[email protected]> 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].
I remember back in school (circa 1987) in the course of data structures, 
the topic of tree traversal using the 3 recursive methods : pre-order, 
in-order and post-order was quite popular back then, in this spirit, 
indeed, Postgres sounds like the next step of Ingres, but this is my 
sole impression !
>
> 			regards, tom lane
>
> [1] https://arxiv.org/pdf/1901.01973
> [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QUEL_query_languages
>
> 			regards, tom lane
>
>






^ permalink  raw  reply  [nested|flat] 5+ messages in thread

* Re: Quick questions about postgres name?
  2025-09-23 04:06 Quick questions about postgres name? Dan Mahoney (Gushi) <[email protected]>
@ 2025-09-23 04:19 ` Adrian Klaver <[email protected]>
  2 siblings, 0 replies; 5+ messages in thread

From: Adrian Klaver @ 2025-09-23 04:19 UTC (permalink / raw)
  To: Dan Mahoney (Gushi) <[email protected]>; [email protected]

On 9/22/25 21:06, Dan Mahoney (Gushi) wrote:
> Hey there folks,
> 
> The manual contains a "Brief History" of postgres and notes that the 
> name Postgres was retained as an official name after Postgres95 added 
> official SQL support, and because 95 wouldn't stand the test of time.
> 
> 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.
> 
> If there's somewhere where this should be suggested, let me know.
> 
> (Wikipedia has some of this history -- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ 
> Ingres_(database))

A more direct link is:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ingres_(database)
> 
> -Dan
> 


-- 
Adrian Klaver
[email protected]






^ permalink  raw  reply  [nested|flat] 5+ messages in thread


end of thread, other threads:[~2025-09-23 14:03 UTC | newest]

Thread overview: 5+ messages (download: mbox mbox.gz follow: Atom feed)
-- links below jump to the message on this page --
2025-09-23 04:06 Quick questions about postgres name? Dan Mahoney (Gushi) <[email protected]>
2025-09-23 04:16 ` Pavel Stehule <[email protected]>
2025-09-23 04:17 ` Tom Lane <[email protected]>
2025-09-23 14:03   ` Achilleas Mantzios <[email protected]>
2025-09-23 04:19 ` Adrian Klaver <[email protected]>

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