The History of Java

The history of Java begins in 1991 at Sun Microsystems. A team led by developer James Gosling was working on a language for small, smart devices like set-top boxes. At the time, the project wasn't yet called "Java" but "Oak" — named after a tree outside Gosling's office window.

What was Java called before it got its current name?

The name "Oak" was already trademarked, so in 1995 the team needed a new name. The developers drank a lot of coffee — and Java is the name of a well-known type of coffee (named after the Indonesian island of Java, where coffee is grown). That's how the language got its current name and its logo: a steaming cup of coffee.

Java was named after a type of ____.

Java was officially released in 1995. Since then, the language has been constantly evolving: Java 8 (2014), for example, introduced a major new feature called "lambda expressions", which made writing code more concise. Since 2018, a new Java version has been released roughly every six months.

In 2010, the company Oracle bought Sun Microsystems — since then, Oracle has owned and maintained the Java language.

Oracle owns and maintains Java today.