Should JavaScript Be Renamed?

Software engineer Kieran Potts asks: does JavaScript need to be renamed? There’s no doubt there are problems with JavaScript’s branding… – Correctly, “JavaScript” refers to a subset of ECMAScript specified by Mozilla, but the word is used interchangeably to refer to multiple different ECMAScript supersets, depending on context. – JavaScript is a trademark of Oracle Corporation, which doesn’t fit comfortably with the language’s position as a central component of the web platform, which is meant to be built entirely from open technologies and standards. – There isn’t even an official logo for JavaScript, let alone a cute mascot like Go’s gopher or PHP’s elephant. – And famously, JavaScript is unrelated to Java. This has confused the hell out of non-technical managers and recruiters for decades. The article also suggests “a standard convention” to identify the runtime’s host system (for example, “WebJS” or “ServerJS”). But in response to the question of rebranding JavaScript, “the most common, knee jerk reaction was a quick guffaw and an exclaimed ‘no!'” notes tech columnist Mike Melanson, “while others offered that the simple contraction to JS would suffice.”