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I would like to know how the Cocoa Framework got its name. I know the name comes from the cocoa-beans but I need to know more details for a little tutorial I am writing. It's a very unusual name for a framework and I would like to know why this name was chosen.

A: 

I would guess that it's a pun on Java, which was very popular/hyped at the time (1998-'99).

Jim Dovey
+7  A: 

According to Wikipedia:

Prior to its current use, the "Cocoa" trademark was the name of an application that allowed children to create multimedia projects. It was originally known as KidSim, and is now licensed to a third party and marketed as Stagecast Creator. The program was discontinued in one of the rationalizations that followed Steve Jobs' return to Apple. The name was re-used to avoid the delay while registering a new trademark, with Stagecast agreeing to market the older Cocoa under a new name.

dseifert
To add to this, it was also due to the fact that at the same time Apple was adding a Java bridge to the APIs. So they chose Cocoa to signify this, though as the Java bridge is now deprecated it's just on its own
Martin Pilkington