Why Is Go Called “Go” and Not “Golang”? The Naming Story Explained

Hello everyone, I’m Jianghu for ten years.

Today we discuss a familiar yet unfamiliar topic for many Gophers: is the language called Go or Golang? It’s a subtle but serious question.

Birth of Go

On September 20, 2007, Google engineers Rob Pike, Robert Griesemer, and Ken Thompson met to design a new language because they were frustrated with C++'s slow compilation.

The next day they continued discussions, and on the third day Robert Griesemer sent an email titled “prog lang discussion,” marking the traceable origin of Go.

As Go grew popular, a classic image circulated in the community:

The three pioneers—Robert Griesemer, Rob Pike, and Ken Thompson—are the fathers of Go.

Origin of the Name “Go”

On the ten‑year anniversary of Go, Rob Pike wrote a blog post “Go: Ten years and climbing.” In his first language‑design email (September 25, 2007) he wrote:

Subject: Re: prog lang discussion
 From: Rob 'Commander' Pike
 Date: Tue, Sep 25, 2007 at 3:12 PM
 To: Robert Griesemer, Ken Thompson

 i had a couple of thoughts on the drive home.

 1. name

 'go'. you can invent reasons for this name but it has nice properties.
 it's short, easy to type. tools: goc, gol, goa. if there's an interactive
 debugger/interpreter it could just be called 'go'. the suffix is .go
 ...

The email shows the name "go" was chosen simply because it is short, easy to type, and elegant.

How “Golang” Appeared

Go was open‑sourced on November 10, 2009, hosted at code.google.com with the initial website golang.com. The presence of “golang” in the URL made the nickname popular. The official domain go.com was unavailable (owned by Disney), and the .dev TLD did not exist then.

Later golang.com redirected to go.dev, the current official site.

Officially, the language is called Go, not Golang. The Go FAQ answers the question directly:

The language is called Go. The “golang” moniker arose because the web site was originally golang.org. (There was no .dev domain then.) Many use the golang name, though, and it is handy as a label. For instance, the social media tag for the language is “#golang”. The language’s name is just plain Go, regardless.

A side note: Although the official logo has two capital letters, the language name is written Go, not GO.

Thus, the correct spelling is Go/go, while GO/Golang/golang are incorrect.

Interestingly, most job postings list “Golang developer” rather than “Go developer,” yet most books and official references use the proper name Go.

Even the TIOBE index shows no other language uses the “lang” suffix except Erlang.

While the naming detail may not affect coding, knowing the official name reflects professionalism.

Summary

We now know the proper name is Go; variations like GO, Golang, or golang are informal.

For further reading:

Go official site: http://golang.com/

Go official site: https://go.dev/

Rob Pike Wiki: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rob_Pike

Robert Griesemer Wiki: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Griesemer

Ken Thompson Wiki: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ken_Thompson

Go: Ten years and climbing: https://commandcenter.blogspot.com/2017/09/go-ten-years-and-climbing.html

Go FAQ “Is the language called Go or Golang?”: https://go.dev/doc/faq#go_or_golang

Go Wiki (Chinese): https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/Go

Google’s Go announcement: https://techcrunch.com/2009/11/10/google-go-language/

TIOBE Index: https://www.tiobe.com/tiobe-index/