Why is C programming language called C?

The C programming language was named simply because it succeeded another programming language called B. It was developed by Dennis Ritchie at Bell Labs in 1972. Ritchie, along with his colleague Ken Thompson, wanted to improve upon B's capabilities while also retaining its efficiency. Thus, they named the new language "C" as it followed B in the alphabet and represented an evolution from its predecessor. Over time, C became widely popular due to its flexibility, efficiency, and portability, becoming one of the most influential programming languages in history. read less

The C programming language is called "C" simply because it directly follows the programming language B. The precursor to C was a programming language named B, developed by Ken Thompson in 1969–1970 at Bell Labs. B itself was derived from BCPL (Basic Combined Programming Language). When Dennis Ritchie and Brian Kernighan were developing the successor to B at Bell Labs in the early 1970s, they made significant improvements and added features that differentiated it from B. Since B came before C in the alphabet, the new language was logically named "C". The name "C" does not officially stand for anything specific, such as "Common" or "Computing" as some might speculate. It was simply the next letter in the sequence after B. Therefore, C is called C because it follows B in the lineage of programming languages developed at Bell Labs, with Dennis Ritchie and Brian Kernighan playing crucial roles in its creation and evolution. read less