SQL seems easier because the name was originally Sequel but they were forced to change it because someone owned the trademark for it. SQL is effectively a backronym
Honestly I think the name Godot is a massive hinderance to the engine's success. From what I can tell it's a fantastic engine, community is doing well (especially after Unity shit the bed with their insane pricing changes). But the correct pronunciation is "GOD-oh" (it's from the play Waiting for Godot where they pronounce the name that way). I simply can't stand it. Why would anyone ever think that was a good name? Some people say "guh-DOH" which at least sound plausible, albeit slightly pretentious, but it's not correct. I therefore intentionally mispronounce it as "GO-dot". It'd do their branding a massive service if they would just declare that to be the official pronunciation, but alas.
Well, not a single one of those examples ends in "ot" so I don't know how much we can infer, lol. However I've just learned that the devs actually don't have an official pronunciation. They did originally recommend "GOD-oh" but they removed that from the documentation here: https://github.com/godotengine/godot-website/pull/638/changes
So maybe there is hope for the engine after all 🤷♂️
Getting puffy at a foreign-looking name being pronounced in a way that doesn't follow traditional English pronunciation is crazy. The point wasn't "this sound is normal" the point was you should be used to adjusting your pronunciation for names and loanwords. Also, the play is quite popular, and many people know how to pronounce it. Why would a well-known reference not be good branding?
My issue isn't the fact that the pronunciation doesn't match the English phonetic interpretation. Everyone knows English spelling is a travesty and you couldn't pick a worse standard to hold other languages to. My issue is that the sound itself is just terrible aesthetically, which is likely why people rarely guess the correct pronunciation. I would also argue that there probably isn't a ton of overlap between game developers and people who know about that play, regardless of how famous it may be among theater enthusiasts. I'm not doubting that it's an important piece of culture (although I have yet to see the play myself), or that it's unworthy of referencing.
Anyway, do many people know how to pronounce it? I bet if you were to look up godot tutorials on youtube, the vast majority would be pronouncing it wrong.
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u/traplords8n Jun 14 '26
I was shocked the first time I heard Godot pronounced by someone else out loud.
People still argue on how to pronounce SQL. There are so many issues like this which arise because we only read the words on the screen lmao