There are several good reasons to call it Coq:<p>- The person who implemented the first version (?) is called Coquand.<p>- The french have a tradition of naming their software projects after animals.<p>- Coq is french for Rooster.<p>But to be honest, there is a rather persistent tale that Thierry Coquand&#x27;s advisor, Gérard Huet, did it on purpose to offend his American colleagues who were too &quot;politically correct&quot; for his tastes.<p>He also named a certain programming language &quot;Caml&quot;. This does have a perfect innocuous explanation, but also happens to be the name of a certain cigarette brand. This was in 1985, when smoking started to be banned in many public places...