What’s With the Twitter Name?

Did you know that the name Twitter was first spelled as twttr as inspired by the word Flckr and the fact that American SMS short codes are five characters. The developers prototyped with “10958″ as short code, later changing it to “40404″ for “ease of use and memorability.” Work on the project started on March 21, 2006 when Dorsey published the first Twitter message at 12:50 PM PST: “just setting up my twttr”.

Here is a A circa 2000 blueprint sketch by Jack Dorsey, envisioning a SMS-based social network.  The working name was just “Status” for a while. It actually didn’t have a name. We were trying to name it, and mobile was a big aspect of the product early on … We wanted to capture that in the name — we wanted to capture that feeling: the physical sensation that you’re buzzing your friend’s pocket. It’s like buzzing all over the world. So we did a bunch of name-storming, and we came up with the word “twitch,” because the phone kind of vibrates when it moves. But “twitch” is not a good product name because it doesn’t bring up the right imagery.   So we looked in the dictionary for words around it, and we came across the word “twitter,” and it was just perfect. The definition was “a short burst of inconsequential information,” and “chirps from birds.” And that’s exactly what the product was.  —Jack Dorsey

Founded three years ago, the microblogging site has grown 900% in the last 12 months.  Just last May 2009.  Twitter has been named breakout site of the year at the prestigious Webby Awards.Here is the clip where Biz Stone accepted the award with only 5 words.