After email, the browser is the application I launch most every day. I got curious about where their names came from, and the answers are better than you'd hope.

Netscape Navigator

Built on the earlier Mosaic browser, a name that likely nodded to displaying images and text together, the web as a rich tapestry. When Mosaic Communications became Netscape, Marc Andreessen had to abandon the Mosaic name after university objections. Navigator was descriptive and to the point: this thing helps you find your way.

Internet Explorer

Launched in 1995, when most people were still asking what the internet was. "Explorer" sold the freedom and possibility of the web at a time when Microsoft's tagline asked where you wanted to go today.

Mozilla & Firefox

Mozilla began as Jamie Zawinski's internal codename for Netscape Navigator, short for "Mosaic killer." Firefox's own naming was a saga: first Phoenix (trademark clash with Phoenix Technologies), then Firebird (clash with an open-source database), finally Firefox, which is another name for the red panda. Delightful.

Safari

Apple has never fully explained it, but it fits the Navigator/Explorer tradition of travel names. My theory: it's surf culture, via the Beach Boys' "Surfin' Safari." Supporting evidence: the browser's development blog was literally titled "Surfin' Safari."

Opera

Opera's team explained theirs directly: international prestige, history in every major city, association with quality. Sophistication balanced with accessibility.

Chrome

Despite internal codename votes, none were chosen. Designer Glen Murphy admitted Chrome stuck because one of the design leads liked fast cars. The team grew used to it, it suggested speed, and, pleasingly, "chrome" is also the word for all the browser interface bits the team wanted to minimise.

Microsoft Edge

The successor to Internet Explorer needed to signal a fresh start without losing the trust (and the "e" muscle memory) of a billion IE users. The team chose Edge to convey "modern, cutting edge, innovative and performant", while keeping a logo familiar enough that your parents could still find the internet.