# Why PostgreSQL's Name Causes Ongoing Pronunciation Confusion

DevFeed: [Why PostgreSQL's Name Causes Ongoing Pronunciation Confusion](<https://devfeed.tech/articles/the-biggest-mistake-postgres-ever-made-41209.md>)

Original publisher: [Read original article](<https://www.craigkerstiens.com/2018/10/30/postgres-biggest-mistake/>)

Author: Map

Published: 2018-10-30T20:55:56Z

Content type: opinion

Language: en

Sources: [Craig Kerstiens](<https://devfeed.tech/sources/craig-kerstiens.md>)

Topics: [PostgreSQL](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/postgresql.md>), [Databases](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/databases.md>), [SQL](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/sql.md>)

Tags: [database](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/database.md>), [databases](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/databases.md>), [opinion](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/opinion.md>), [postgres](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/postgres.md>), [postgresql](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/postgresql.md>), [sql](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/sql.md>)

## AI overview

This opinion article argues that PostgreSQL's name is its most notable mistake because the name has led to persistent pronunciation confusion. It explains the relationship between Ingres, Postgres, and PostgreSQL, and notes the project's FAQ on pronunciation.

## Source excerpt

Postgres has experienced a long and great run. It is over 20 years old and has a track record of being safe and reliable (which is the top thing I care about in a database). In recent years it has become more cool with things like JSONB, JIT support, and a powerful extension ecosystem. But, Postgres has made some mistakes along the way, the most notable being the name. Postgres gets its name from Ingress. Ingress was one of the first databases and was lead by Michael Stonebreaker who won a Turing award for Postgres and other works. Ingress began in the early 70s at UC Berkeley, which is still to this day known as a top university when it comes to databases. Out of Ingress came a number of databases you'll still know today such as SQL Server and Sybase. It also as you may have guessed by now spawned Postgres which means Post-Ingress. In the early days of Postgres there was no SQL. No not NoSQL, there was not SQL. Postgres had its own query language. It wasn't until 1995 that Postgres received SQL support, and with its addition of SQL support it updated its name to PostgreSQL. You see, with Postgres becoming PostgreSQL we began a journey of Postgres being mispronounced for its forseeable future and it is still currently the case. Is it really that big of an issue? Well it's big enough that the PostgreSQL website has a FAQ including "How to pronounce PostgreSQL". As it stands today there are two generally accepted names: post-GRES-que-ell Postgres With one of the above there is far less confusion. And in fact I'm not the only one to share this opinion. Tom Lane is a major contributor to every Postgres release for more than the last decade. He's one of the top 10 contributors to open source in general having worked on the JPEG/PNG/TIFF image formats before coming over to database land. Tom has this classic email in the PostgreSQL mailing list: [>> Can i get data in postgre from non-postgre db? > The name is PostgreSQL or Postgres, not postgre. It might help to explain t