Repository navigation
What is the origin of the name "Keycloak"? #54201
|
Hi Keycloak team, Could you share where the name "Keycloak" came from? I checked the documentation, the CNCF announcement, and Bill Burke's 2014 release post, but couldn't find an explanation. Is it simply "key" + "cloak", or is there a story behind it? The question came up while our team was naming an internal service. Any insight from Bill, Stian, or anyone who was there in the early days would be greatly appreciated. Thank you for building and maintaining Keycloak! |
Replies: 2 comments
|
There's a bit of a story, but not the most exiting. We wanted to make identities easy for people, and wanted a short and sexy name. Keycloak comes from the idea of hiding (cloaking) the complexity of identities (keys). Think of it as a slightly smarter name than SimpleIdentities (well IdentitySimple as Cloakkeys is not exactly elegant). Bill gets the credit for the name, I seem to remember all of my proposals where not exactly awesome. |
|
Thank you, Stian really appreciate the explanation. "Cloaking the complexity of keys" is a much better story than you give it credit for, and SimpleIdentities would never have stuck. Wishing you both all the best. |
There's a bit of a story, but not the most exiting. We wanted to make identities easy for people, and wanted a short and sexy name.
Keycloak comes from the idea of hiding (cloaking) the complexity of identities (keys). Think of it as a slightly smarter name than SimpleIdentities (well IdentitySimple as Cloakkeys is not exactly elegant).
Bill gets the credit for the name, I seem to remember all of my proposals where not exactly awesome.