[TUHS] So who named Unix? [was multicians] Peter Neumann has died]

Arnold Robbins via TUHS tuhs at tuhs.org
Fri May 22 05:05:10 AEST 2026


In

> https://cacm.acm.org/news/in-memoriam-peter-g-neumann-1932-2026/

It's brought down that some stories credit Peter Neumann with the Unics
pun on Multics. It's plausible as he as involved in Multics for Bell Labs,
(apparently) was still around when Ken started working on the PDP-7 in
1969-1970, and he had a penchant for puns.

Other histories I've seen credit Brian Kernighan with the naming. When
I asked BWK some time back, he said he didn't remember.

Doug and/or Ken, do either of you happen to remember definitively?

Thanks,

Arnold


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