---
url: 'https://dri.es/acquia-what-is-in-a-name'
title: 'Acquia, what is in a name?'
author:
  name: 'Dries Buytaert'
  url: 'https://dri.es/about'
date: '2022-07-20T13:55:22-04:00'
license: 'https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/'
type: blog
summary: 'How Jay and I came up with the name Acquia, and how it is (not) pronounced.'
tags:
  - Acquia
  - 'Startup lessons'
image: acquia/ah-kwe-eh
published: true
featured: false
id: 5351
---

# Acquia, what is in a name?

[Acquia](https://www.acquia.com/) recently turned 15. Over the past 15 years, I've heard [the name "Acquia" pronounced in all sorts of different ways](https://youtu.be/IXkgf_HYgqg).

[video IXkgf_HYgqg]

It was Jay Batson, my co-founder, who came up with the name "Acquia". Please blame Jay for the difficult name. ;)

When it came time to pick a name for our company, Jay insisted that the name started with the letter A. I remember questioning the value of that. <q>In a world where people search for things, who looks up things in alphabetical order?</q>, I asked.

In the end, Jay was right. I learned a great many things the past 15 years, including how common alphabetical listings still are. You'd be amazed how often Acquia ranks number one in listings. It gave us a small edge.

For more background on how the name Acquia came to be, and some other Acquia trivia, check out [Jay's blog post "ah-kwe-eh"](https://medium.com/@startupdj/ah-kwe-eh-ceeeb1496b6c).
