Google Name HistoryInitial name given to Google was
BackRub. They called it because the program analyzed the web's "back links" to understand how important a website was and what other sites it related to.
Then they decided to have "googol" the shorter form of "googolplex". Googol is the digit 1 followed by 100 zeroes while googolplex is 1 followed by a googol zeroes.
While they were looking for the availability of "
googol.com" availability, they accidentally searched "
google.com" and they found it as much better one and went with that.