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

  • Margot Robbie
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    2011 months ago

    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. ☺️

  • @JadenSmith@sh.itjust.works
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    11 months ago

    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…

    • Drunemeton
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      411 months ago

      If you’re able to share that memory with her please do so. It’s very nice!

      • @JadenSmith@sh.itjust.works
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        411 months ago

        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.

  • Jupiter Rowland
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    911 months ago

    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.

    • @Orionza@lemmy.zipOP
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      211 months ago

      Okay I did not know that. I just thought they liked mastodons or something.

      Is it a thing to name your project after bands? 🤔

  • @Chickenstalker@lemmy.world
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    611 months ago

    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

    • @monobot@lemmy.ml
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      211 months ago

      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.

  • @SendMePhotos@lemmy.world
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    311 months ago

    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.

  • Chris
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    311 months ago

    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.

  • N3Cr0
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    311 months ago

    Nice to see my first association with the Name is actually pretty accurate: Lemmy Kilmister.

  • ikantolol
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    -211 months ago

    it’s arbitrary and the developer probably didn’t expect Lemmy to grow that big lol

    • superkret
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      211 months ago

      I’m just glad the name is not something related to r****t.

      • xuxebiko
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        211 months ago

        I thought it was named after lemurs after the lemur-like behaviour people exhibit on socialmedia.