Re: The origin of the name lilypond

[Pedro Kroger]

dax2 <address@hidden> writes:

>    Some days ago I read something interesting (and/or amusing)
> about the origin of the name Lilypond.
>
>
>    What was the idea behind the name Lilypond?
>
>    Where can I read the (surprising?) story?
>
>    Would you add it to the preface (Documentation)?
>
>    I think it was in the docs for Lilypond but I cannot seem
> to find it though I have been searching for two hours: 

How about the lilypond faq?
http://lilypond.org/web/about/faq.html

Why the weird name?

Han-Wen: I started Lily (our affectionate name for LilyPond) in
1996. Back then, I was in an amateur symphonic orchestra together with
Jan. I had a crush on this magnificent girl in the orchestra: her name
was Suzanne, she played both the flute and the cello, and (of course) I
thought she was very pretty.

At the time, Jan was dating Roos (Dutch for ‘Rose’ -- she also played
the cello). I also knew about about a package Rosegarden (a GUI MIDI
sequencer and notation editor). When I found out that ‘Susan’ is Hebrew
for ‘lily’, I decided that calling the package ‘LilyPond’ would match
make the nomenclature of the rest of my life perfectly.

Some things don't last---the two girls, the cellos and the orchestra,
all have disappeared from our lives. LilyPond however has survived over
time. It is a big, mature program with a healthy user-base and good
prospects. Best of all is, that we still have a good time hacking on it

Pedro