說起Java這個名稱是怎麽來的，在世界上還流傳着不同版本的傳說。
1.咖啡說
1995年，SUN公司和好萊塢準備開展一個技術交流會，皆以宣傳公司的産品。James Gosling帶着他的係統來到了技術交流會。但他不能用OAK這個名字了。OAK已經被一傢半導體公司註册了，並且註册了好多領域，衹能換名。James Gosling四處觀望尋找靈感，他看到了一個泡咖啡的杯子，杯子上印着Java，James Gosling就把這種語言改名為Java。
2.度假說
1994年6、7月間，在經歷了一場歷時三天的頭腦風暴的討論後，Green團隊决定再一次改變了努力的目標，這次他們决定將該技術應用於萬維網。他們認為隨着Mosaic瀏覽器的到來，因特網正在嚮同樣的高度互動的遠景演變，而這一遠景正是他們在有綫電視網中看到的。此時Green小組組員正在在印度尼西亞爪哇島（Java）度假時，於是他們把Oak改名為Java。
3.簡寫說
Java命名來源於開發人員名字的組合：James Gosling、Arthur Van Hoff和Andy Bechtolsheim首字母的縮寫。
4.頭腦風暴說
關於Java命名的由來，James Gosling是曾經這樣回答過Jonathan Schwartz，原文如下：
From: James Gosling
Date: August 24, 2007 8:16:58 PM PDT
To: Jonathan Schwartz
Subject: How was Java named?
The story goes like this:
We needed a name. We had been using "oak" (which was selected essentially randomly by me), and while the team had grown attached to it, the trademark lawyers ruled it out. We had lots of email debates about names, but nothing got resolved. We ended up in the awkward position where the #1 thing stopping us from shipping was the name.
Our marketing lead knew someone who was a "naming consultant" (I don't remember his name, but he was great). We could neither afford the price nor the time of a conventional product naming process. He agreed to do something rather odd, but effective and quick: he acted as a facilitator at a meeting where about a dozen of us locked ourselves in a room for an afternoon. He started asking us questions like "How does this thing make you feel?" (Excited!) "What else makes you feel that way?" (Java!) We ended up with a board covered with essentially random words. Then he put us through a sorting process where we ended up with a ranking of the names. We ended up with a dozen name candidates and sent them off to the lawyers: they worked down the list until they hit one that cleared their search. "Java" was the fourth name on the list. The first name on the list was "Silk", which I hated but everyone else liked. My favorite was "Lyric", the third one on the list, but it didn't pass the lawyers test. I don't remember what the other candidate names where.
So, who named Java? Marketing organized the meeting, the consultant ran it, and a whole pile of us did a lot of yelling out of random words. I'm honestly not real sure who said "Java" first, but I'm pretty sure it was Mark Opperman.
There certainly wasn't any brilliant marketing mind who went through a coherent thought process.
中文翻譯如下：
我們需要一個名字。我們已經使用了oak（那是我隨機挑選的），然而當開發團隊接觸它的時候，這個商標已經被律師排除了。我們收到許多關於命名爭論的電子郵件，但是問題沒有解决。我們需要結束這種棘手的處境，阻撓我們前進的首要問題就是這命名。
我們市場部領導瞭解到某人是“命名顧問”（我不記得他的名字了，但是他是很棒）。我們既不可能提供金錢也不可能提供時間用於常規産品的命名過程。他同意做個臨時的事，但是要高效和快捷：一天下午，我們大概十二個人將自己鎖在一個房間內，他在會上充當一個主持人。他讓我們寫一些名稱來做一個挑選。我們最終寫了十二個候選名稱，並且將其送達給律師團審閱。律師團看了列表，選定了能排出其它名稱的候選項。“Java”是列表裏的第四個名稱。列表裏的第一個名稱是“Silk”，那是我討厭但是其他人喜歡的名稱。我最喜歡的是列表裏的第三個名稱“Lyric”，但是它沒有通過律師團的審核。我不記得其它候選名稱了。
為什麽命名Java呢？市場部組織了一個會議，顧問提名，我們全體人員喊出隨機的詞語。說實話，我真的不確定誰最先說“Java”，但是我有很有把握說這人是Mark Opperman。
確實不存在任何傑出的市場理念能夠通過一致的認可。