Why Is It Called a Computer ‘Mouse’?

From bugs to worms and pythons, the computing world is full of names borrowed from living creatures. Yet another example is the accessory known as a computer mouse. Modern versions of the device are sleek, wireless, and lack a strong affinity to cheese, but the earliest incarnations of the tech give us a clue as to the naming.

The first computer mice trace back to the early 1960s — we see written evidence of the term “mouse” in a 1965 report from the Stanford Research Institute discussing computer displays. Three years later, Douglas Engelbart, the inventor whose sketches inspired the device’s design, said, “I don’t know why we call it a mouse. … It started that way and we never did change it.” 

It’s true that Engelbart didn’t intend to call it a mouse. The word doesn’t appear at all in his patent, which refers to it as the “X-Y position indicator for a display system.” But we can find some logic for the name in its appearance. 

The first devices were handheld objects with a cord jutting out of one end, which looked similar to an actual mouse’s tail. This was more or less all it took to come up with the name; despite Engelbart’s aforementioned claim that he didn’t know why they called it a mouse, he once said, “It just looked like a mouse with a tail, and we all called it that.” However, Engelbart added, “No one can remember [who coined the term.]”

Interestingly, Engelbart and his team also used the term “bug” in relation to the computer mouse, though it had nothing to do with software flaws (which is how “bug” is used today). Rather, they used “bug” to refer to the onscreen cursor, though this term failed to catch on like “mouse” and ultimately faded from use.

Today, mice are among the many computer accessories that commonly connect using Bluetooth — a wireless connection that eliminates the need for the corded mice that look more akin to actual mice. But the term “computer mouse” continues to be used far and wide, paying homage to those days when all computer accessories had wires.