What does ‘Natty Narwhal’ actually mean? You’ll be surprised…

By , Published February 16, 2011

Two words that form the code name for the new version of Ubuntu – but both are rather unique. Here we take a look at where each word came from and what it means today…

Natty

‘Natty’, which means to look smart in appearance, is a presumed derivative of ‘neat’.

Synonyms for ‘Natty’ include ‘Dapper’ and ‘Jaunty’ – both previously used in Ubuntu codenames (Ubuntu 6.06 Dapper Drake and Ubuntu 9.04 Jaunty Jackalope, respectively.)

Narwhal

The origin of the name ‘narwhal’ is a bit more disturbing.

Ancient sailors traversing the bitter cold seas around Greenland, near the Arctic, often came across the sole-horned creature and so likened its skin to the pallid colour of the dead that it’s name in Old Norse - narhval – literally meant ‘corpse whale’.

It’s from this macabre description that ‘Narwhal’ is derived.

Image Credit: amutalrespect.org

Related posts:

  1. This is one gorgeous Narwhal themed, Natty coloured wallpaper
  2. Begin your countdown to Natty with this ‘Avenging Narwhal’ play set…
  3. Ubuntu 11.04 named ‘Natty Narwhal’, aims to impress
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  • http://www.twm-kd.com/ BigWhale

    Marine mammals FTW! Dead or alive. :>

  • http://www.twm-kd.com/ BigWhale

    Marine mammals FTW! Dead or alive. :>

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_POBOXJ4AGBFJ5P2OE2R4AOPLQ4 Don

    That is sure one neat dead whale!

  • http://twitter.com/zc456 Squeaks

    So wait, Natty Narwhal translates to “neat corpse whale”? Dear god. Can’t wait for 11.10 now.

    • Bilal Akhtar

      That would turn out to be unnecessary. Canonical markets Ubuntu releases by their version numbers and not development code names. Though almost every Ubuntu user knows about the development code name of the Ubuntu version he/she’s using, the code name is *not* a part of the official advertising strategy.

    • http://twitter.com/tomdwright Tom Wright

      A think you are blowing this rather out of proportion. A Narwhal is an awesome animal, regardless of whether the etymology of the word might be slightly sinister.

      • http://twitter.com/danizmax Daniel

        I don’t know about that, they might be pretty anoyed by their noses or horn or what ever that big thing is :P

        • Anonymous

          its a tooth … yes, its a freakin’ sharp extra long tooth

          … of doom

  • http://twitter.com/EuruxD Eustace

    Sorry, I couldn’t resist
    http://youtu.be/ykwqXuMPsoc

    • http://www.twm-kd.com/ BigWhale

      Ok, my six year old son is now dancing to this and playing it over and over again. :)))

      • Anonymous

        My daughter will love it!

      • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_DWSOTHNJWUCFFCL5XJPX6CNABQ Renan

        now I am too :D

        narwhals narwhals
        swimming in the ocean
        causing the commotion

        p/

        • http://www.twm-kd.com/ BigWhale

          Underwater unicorns!!! Pure win!

    • https://launchpad.net/~rafalcieslak256 rc

      +1 !

    • http://twitter.com/danizmax Daniel

      LMAO.. so it seems they aren’t only “smart looking corpses” xD

    • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_DWSOTHNJWUCFFCL5XJPX6CNABQ Renan

      holly crap, 11 million views

    • http://openid-provider.appspot.com/souobadaro Red_Acid

      It’s my cellphone tune since 3 months ago. =P

    • http://profiles.google.com/newtodisworld Amandeep Singh

      it’s awesome m/

  • Anonymous

    I was all smiling until I hit the narwhal part … you didn’t even try to cushion it at all.

    I think that is what disturbs me the most … that and that the next release of ubuntu will be defined as “a neat bloated whale corpse”.

    • Seventh Reign

      Which is an extremely accurate description for the operating system.

      • http://omgubuntu.co.uk/ d0od

        Ouch!

      • Matt Sturgeon

        Lol, try Windows :P

      • Anonymous

        Zing! :P

        try busybox … its very fast

        come on, its fast enough … don’t be too harsh, go easy on the litt… err, big guy. :D

      • Anonymous

        You mean on launch it will be… “dead in the water”? :D

        • Anonymous

          *badam tsch*

  • Anonymous

    Haha, if someone doesn’t know what a narwhal is, they probably shouldn’t be using Linux…

    HOW DOES I NARWHAL?

    • Matt Sturgeon

      You mean using a computer :P

  • Anonymous

    I no that one is quite old, but cuoldn’t handle it.
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ykwqXuMPsoc

  • Anonymous

    Totally out of topic.. but why are the comments for the “NotifyLog post” closed?

  • http://twitter.com/Surlent777 Surlent Seriyuu

    That, and narwhal does not mean “bloated corpse whale” to anyone other than etymology fans; anyone looking it up now will see it defined as “small Arctic whale, the male having a long spiral ivory tusk” or something of the sort.

  • https://openid.org/meronem raczgabor

    Oh, I thought that Natty Narwhal is a kind of Japanese sushi: narwhal with natto. Can be eaten with chopsticks made of the narwhal horn,

    • http://twitter.com/cedr cedr

      Makes sense. In Japan there’s a popular dish that mixes chicken and egg. The name, oyako-don, translates roughly to “parent and child bowl” :)

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_FX5ITOLLHVNOY673XBRGCKF3DI Freddi

    found one in 3d:
    sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/details?mid=5ca2106cb42caf368d1fe8cdc415f4c5

  • Anonymous

    saw this comment on youtube, had to repost it.
    narwhals are actually unicorns who have evolved into their dolphin shape we see today. the reason for their drastic change in evolution is because they were exposed to large amounts of water when god decided to flood the earth and Noah, being jealous of the unicorns sexiness, left without them. but,unicorns,being the magical beasts that they are, adapted to their enviorment and became narwhals… true story.

 
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