When I started out implementing my own language in Nim I named it “Ni” without that much thought actually. It was a pun on “smaller than Nim” (obviously one letter shorter!) and of course with a reference to Monty Python.

But… really, the name “Ni” sucks. It’s hard to say in general and since it’s often mentioned together with Nim the confusion is obvious. And it also turned out to be less than optimal to google for.

Sprylang.org

So from now on the language is called Spry and there are two domains registered for it pointing to the same place - sprylang.org and spry-lang.net. The main site is sprylang.org, I first registered the .net domain but later realized that sprylang is just as reasonable as spry-lang, and there the .org was not taken.

Why spry?

Well, to be honest I was just surfing for synonyms to various “nice words” and I stumbled over it. I was leaning towards “fleck” but a native english speaking friend talked me out of it. :) Spry jumped up from some thesarus site and… it just feels nice. And the meaning of spry is also very fitting IMHO:

Spry: full of life and energy

One of the primary goals of Spry is to be a fully 100% live programming language and environment.

Spry: Moving or performing quickly, lightly, and easily

…and yeah, the agility and nimbleness is also a big part. Given the influence from “older” languages like Smalltalk, Rebol, Lisp and Forth - I can also see some sense in the typical use of the adjective spry - namely as pertaining to someone elderly! That’s fine with me.

And hey, it’s triple creamed too…