Hello!
I’m a Reddit transplant. I get the name Reddit (I read it) or at least that’s how I figured it got its name.
Lemmy though? At first it reminded me of lemon 🍋 I looked up “lemmy” and found an origin of the name, which means “Devoted to God” and is a diminutive of Lemuel.
But where the service’s name originates is partially from the name of Ian Frasier Kilmister, aka Lemmy, from the band Motorhead.
The origin of his name: “The name originated from his often said sentence “can you lem’me five?” oder “lemme a fiver?”.” (Source)
Then finally the Wikipedia reveals full information that the creator partially took the name from Lemmy the Motorhead band member, and a game called Lemmings, which he had been playing at the time.
This is in case anyone has wondered why this interesting service has such an odd name!
#lemmy #lemmyorigins
The origin of the name is actually told in Lemmy’s GitHub page, it’s not just the Motorhead singer and Lemmings:
Why’s it called Lemmy?
- Lead singer from Motörhead.
- The old school video game.
- The Koopa from Super Mario.
- The furry rodents.
So basically the name came from an amalgam of things the lead dev liked.
Why are speculations voted higher than this accurate answer? Link to the Github page for everyone to check: https://github.com/LemmyNet/lemmy#whys-it-called-lemmy
My favorite part is that Lemmy Koopa was also named after mister Kilmister.
Lemmy was basically God in the metal scene.
Thank you. I saw a comment claiming it was named after the butt gerbil from South Park. I am relieved to know that it is not.
I was wondering how from Koopa. I only knew of Bowser. I’ve never seen Lemmy Koopa. Thanks for that.
The koopa is named after the lead singer from Motorhead IIRC
It was originally called “Le Meme” to reflect its primary function as a reddit clone, before the devs decided to shorten it to “Lemmy”.
Source: I made it up. ☺️
I like it. I thought it was true until the end 😊
@MargotRobbie @Orionza so sexy. I prefer this version. 🤣
So what?
Mastodon was named after a metal band that was named after a furry prehistorical elephant. Fact. Yes, really. No, really. No, I’m not kidding you.
Okay I did not know that. I just thought they liked mastodons or something.
Is it a thing to name your project after bands? 🤔
Open source people have a history of…questionable naming schemes (looking at you, GIMP). We should backronym Lemmy to something more normie. I’ll start:
Lightweight Electronic Mutual Milieu technologY
questionable naming schemes
Yes, because no one wants to have problems with someone’s trademark, since that would foce them to change app name.
Easiest way to avoid this is using strange name.
I think it’s also a happy accident that Lemmy sounds like “let me”, so you get community names like Lemmy Shitpost, or Lemmy Be Wholesome.
Hi there! Looks like you linked to a Lemmy community using a URL instead of its name, which doesn’t work well for people on different instances. Try fixing it like this: !lemmyshitpost@lemmy.world, !lemmybewholesome@lemmy.world
good bot
That’s how I read it too.
Lemmy tell you a story….
I like the plays on “Lemmy”
It’s short for Leomard.
British comedian Leomard “Lemmy” Henry.
Weird. I always thought it was from the game. Throughout reading what you typed, I was expecting something unexpected. As it turns out… It was what I expected, unexpectedly.
I like this because it reminds me of Lemmings.
My mum has been a single mum her whole life, and when I was a kid she couldn’t always get the most popular games but I believe she was told Lemmings would be very good. She got an entire box set, including a Christmas edition! At first I was of course distraught, until my brother installed it on his PC and I would constantly ask to play it. So many hours went into it, and it’s not the first time my mum had really surprised me with something I didn’t know I’d end up appreciating so much. I think I still have it somewhere…
If you’re able to share that memory with her please do so. It’s very nice!
Thank you, I often do. I sometimes show her the Pacman game she got me whilst abroad, thinking it was Pokémon Yellow, and reminding her that I actually really enjoyed it and wouldn’t have known about all the various collections of Pacman if she didn’t follow my very crude description of Pikachu (which thinking back, could have been describing Pacman as well lmao).
She’s going through chemo treatments, so it’s more important to remind her of these things. For me at least.
@Orionza It from the famous city of Lemmingrad.
The origins are right on the pages that pertain to Lemmy.
I looked and never found them, which made me dig the internet
Lemmy from Motörhead is the only other Lemmy I ever knew. Therefore, it was clear to me, that the name our our new home is a homage to the god of rock & roll and whisky.
it’s arbitrary and the developer probably didn’t expect Lemmy to grow that big lol
I just figued they called it lemmy so we’d all be called lemmings
I thought it was named after lemurs after the lemur-like behaviour people exhibit on socialmedia.
