How Do You Pronounce “MySQL”?

We sometimes talk on the telephone with various technology companies, and their representatives, and there’s still confusion over the pronunciation of MySQL. After 12 years since this blog post was written, the “two camps” still exist. Which are you in? Leave a comment, at the bottom of this post!

Two camps, both alike in dignity

The people on the telephone fall into one of two camps: technical and non-technical. Nobody, however, seems to be sure exactly how to pronounce the abbreviation “MySQL”.

The people who made and host MySQL have been quite clear about this. It is pronounced “my ess queue ell” however, some people pronounce it “my sequel” which can lead to confusion on the telephone when a person who has not used option A, is talking to a person using option B.

Simplified Pronunciation

The pronunciation could be simplified even to be ‘my ess cue ell’ even.

This blog post is designed to clear up how the people who make MySQL pronounce it… as far as we are aware, there is no “right way” or “wrong way” and a wise person once probably said “people who educate themselves by reading often pronounce things wrong, and this doesn’t make them stupid.” Kind of sums it up. Even though its a quote from a fictitious “wise person”.

How to pronounce SQL

I recently noticed that there were cartoons and memes about the pronunciation of SQL too… and this makes sense. Apparently some people pronounce it “sequel” but I guess this is an easier one for me. SQL is not short for the word “sequel”, nor is it an acronym (a word made out of an abbreviation, like AIDS or NATO), it is an abbreviation of Structured Query Language.

As a consequence, I think it is probably “more correct” to say it as S.Q.L. and not a word which happens to contain the same letters in that order.

Perhaps, the same rule applies, by extension to MySQL. I mean, it doesn’t take that much longer to say all the letters, does it? Not really, when you consider the additional time spent writing this content, and by you, in Googling it to land in at this page and read all the way down to here 😉

Leave a comment – how do you say it?

Leave a comment below with your chosen pronunciation, for nothing other than a scientifically inaccurate straw poll. And don’t say “it” 🙂

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