Why do you call Google Google? Either you know the answer or you are heading to Google to ask it. But wait-we tell you, and no, inspiration is not a good thing but a mistake. Unlike Apple, which apparently got its name because Steve Jobs loved fruits and got inspired after eating apples in an orchard with Steve Wozniak, Google got its name because of a mistake made during a search. Ironic, but yes, the biggest search engine got its iconic name when its co-founders, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, asked their friend Sean Anderson to come up with a name, and he accidentally typed in “Google” instead of “googol”.

So here’s what happened. In 1997, two young students at Stanford University, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, were working to develop a search engine like no other. After initially arguing, they came to a compromise and designed the search engine to analyze the web’s “backlinks” to determine the importance of individual pages. Naturally, they named it “Backrub.” Yes, you read that right—Backrub—as in, you give the internet a gentle massage to get answers.

However, BackRub was taking up too much bandwidth, so the founders came back to discuss and brainstorm a name that would better reflect their mission to organize the world’s information. During that conversation, another Stanford graduate and fellow student, Sean Anderson, helped make history. Anderson used the term “googolplex,” which refers to the number 1 followed by a google of zeros (googol means 1 followed by 100 zeros). The name was liked, but to make it shorter, Larry Page suggested calling it “Googol.” And that’s where the iconic mistake happened. When Anderson checked to see if “googol.com” was available, he accidentally typed “google.com.” Page was overjoyed by this happy coincidence, he liked the simple, catchy name. And so, on September 15, 1997, the name Google was officially registered, and the largest search engine was born.

This odd name, Google, perfectly reflected the founders’ mission “to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.” The word Google reflected the vast amount of data they wanted to handle, while the misspelling gave it an accessible charm.

The word Google also brought the company serious attention in Silicon Valley. Sun Microsystems co-founder Andy Bechtolsheim wrote Larry and Sergey a check for $100,000 while the company wasn’t yet officially incorporated. This investment was the green light they needed to move out of their dorm and into their first office—a garage in Menlo Park, California. This garage, owned by Susan Wojcicki (who later became CEO of YouTube), had ugly desktop computers, a ping pong table, and a bright blue carpet. They even had a Lego-built server.

Interestingly, the nice accident of naming Google Google also laid the foundation for the creation of Google’s parent company, Alphabet. Alphabet symbolizes the collection of letters representing language, one of humanity’s most important innovations and central to Google’s search index. In addition, the name “Alphabet” also conveys the idea of ​​striving for excellence, as “alpha” denotes investment returns above benchmarks. In fact, the name “Google” has become synonymous with the Internet, embodying the search engine’s founders’ vision of a world capable of handling a vast breadth of information and making it accessible to everyone.