safari: ‘Freedom’! This is what Steve Jobs initially wanted to name Apple’s browser Safari

If Steve Jobs, an American entrepreneur and industrial designer, had his way, Apple‘s Safari, as we know it now and which is an essential component of Apple’s systems, might not have been called Safari. Today, many devices, including the Mac, iPhone, iPod, and iPad, include Safari. It has a fantastic design and improved security features.

Don Melton, an old Apple employee who was part of the safari project, has revealed that Jobs was fixated on the name
‘Freedom
‘. He had spent quite a lot of time trying to convince the team of this name. Freedom signified their freedom from Microsoft and Internet Explorer, the browser they depended on at that time. It also provoked positive imagery of being set free.

Several names were pitched during the development stages of the browser, including Alexander. Named after Alexander the Great, they wanted a name that was simple to call out and easy to remember as well. The string of Alexander was also all over the code and in their resources as well. Some Apple employees jokingly referred to this browser as
“iBrowser“ when asked about the final name.

Melton wrote in his blog that he doesn’t know who pitched the name Safari to Jobs but is glad they went for it. He wasn’t in the room when this name came up but described this three-syllable word as angels singing in a choir. In the blog, he further thanks whoever suggested the name “Safari”. It is still unclear as to why and how Jobs came up with the name. It took the team months and months of discussions to finally come up with a name.

The development of the Safari project was started back in 2002 and was launched in 2003 at the
WWDC-Worldwide Developer’s Conference. It offered important features like Google Search, pop-up blocking, and tab-browsing, to name a few. It posed quite a challenge to Internet Explorer with all its features. Another new product announced at the same event became the default web browser for Macintosh devices as well. Even currently, Safari offers some notable features, including 4K video quality, built-in privacy protection, faster loading time, and many more.