A.I.-cronym

The Doctor: What are you, then?
BOSS: I am the first Biomorphic Organizational Systems Supervisor.
The Doctor: B, O, double S. The BOSS.
BOSS: Precisely.
The Doctor: Ha!
BOSS: My designers also found it amusing. I find it suitable.

— Doctor Who, "The Green Death"

Whenever you come across an AI, sufficiently-expansive computer program, or robot, it is likely to have a name disproportionally consisting of ALLCAPS (sometimes with Leet Lingo sprinkled in in place of letters). As it turns out this is not just for show; very often the AI's name is actually an (often easily pronounceable) acronym for a much longer actual name that's at least tangentially related to its primary function(s).

Reminder: for an acronym to qualify it must be related to the AI/program's function. Remember to add context regarding such, even if it's Exactly What It Says on the Tin.

Sub-Trope of Fun with Acronyms, Meaningful Name, Names Given to Computers, and Robot Names.

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Examples

Anime & Manga

• The Cosmic Era, setting of Mobile Suit Gundam SEED (along with sequels and spinoffs), features the G.U.N.D.A.M. series of giant robot OS, the use of which is generally how a mobile suit is acknowledged as a Gundam. Emphasis on series of OS, by the way: there's an absolute plethora of those operating systems, each with an unique Gratuitous English acronym that spells GUNDAM. For instance, the Strike's OS stands for "General Unilateral Neurolink Dispersive Autonomic Maneuver", the massive weapon platform Destroy runs the "Gigantic Unilateral Numerous Dominating AMmunition" software, and the space exploration probe Stargazer features the "Guider UNmanned Deployment Autonomic Manipulation" system.

Asian Animation

• BoBoiBoy Galaxy: One villain is a robotic power sphera hunter named A.B.A.M. (Accurate Ballistic Arrow Mercenary), otherwise known in the English dub as B.R.R.O. (Ballistic Robot Ranged Offense). He wields a bow-and-arrow which he shoots with terrifying accuracy.

Comic Books

• Atomic Robo and the Ghost of Station X has an A.I. named A.L.A.N. (though typically spelled without periods), an Automatic Learning Algorithm Network named for his creator, Alan Turing. He's a computer that produces work upon inputs according to instructions, but was also designed to create his own instructions and choose his own inputs. Unfortunately for the world, he was left alone for 50+ years and falls under A.I. Is a Crapshoot.
• Iron Man: Tony has dabbled in this a few times, even before the movies came along. His first was H.O.M.E.R., the Heuristically Operative Matrix Emulation Rostrum. Later comics add J.A.R.V.I.S. (from the films), H.E.L.E.N. (formerly P.E.P.P.E.R., but the real Pepper Potts found this creepy and so Tony changed it), and B.O.S.S. In 2018's Infinity Wars, the character Iron Hammer (a merge of Tony and Thor) has his own; Heuristic Enhanced Imaging Macro Digital Awareness for Logic and Logistics. Even his creator thinks this is a mouthful, so he abbreviates it to simply H.E.I.M.D.A.L.L.

Fan Works

• Inferior or Superior: Delta Drome's town sign is equipped with a Robotic Affective Friend, or R.A.F., to act as a cheerful source of advice.

Film

• HAL (Heuristically programmed ALgorithmic computer) from 2001: A Space Odyssey - It's technically HAL 9000, suggesting it is part of a series, but no others are ever mentioned^note Other HALs are mentioned, but they are also the 9000 model. It has been speculated that HAL was named in reference to IBM, as when "IBM" is encrypted in a Caesar cipher with a left shift of 1, it becomes "HAL", but the filmmakers denied this.
• Agent for H.A.R.M. has the titular Human Aetiological Resources Machine. Clearly it's not the medical definition of "aetiology" that's relevant, so credit to the filmmakers for digging a somewhat-relevant word out of the philosophy textbooks that could actually fit without too much shoehorning.
• In D.A.R.Y.L., the Protagonist Title stands for Data Analyzing Robot Youth Lifeform, which is a longer way of saying Robot Kid.
• Eagle Eye: The Department of Defense has an intelligence-gathering supercomputer called ARIIA, which is short for Autonomous Reconnaissance Intelligence Integration Analyst.
• I, Robot: The massive positronic computer brain that operates U.S. Robotics is called the Virtual Interactive Kinetic Intelligence, or V.I.K.I. for short. She is capable of projecting a holographic interface to communicate with the employees.
• The Iron Man films turn Tony Stark's butler Jarvis into a computer/onboard AI named J.A.R.V.I.S. The novelization reveals that it's "Just A Rather Very Intelligent System". Come Avengers: Age of Ultron, J.A.R.V.I.S. is replaced by F.R.I.D.A.Y..
• In M3GAN, the name of the eponymous android means "Model Three Generative Android".
• AMEE ("Autonomous Mapping Exploration and Evasion") from the science fiction film Red Planet, is a former military scouting robot, sent into places on its own and expected to avoid detection while exploring the area its deployed in. Really should have disabled the 'military' part before going on a civilian mission.
• Zigzagged by the robots in Short Circuit who belong to the SAINT (Strategic Artificially Intelligent Nuclear Transport) line and were originally pitched as robotic nuclear suicide bombers - they kept the SAINT designation even after being repurposed for less self-destructive purposes like normal warfare leaving their acronyms a case of Artifact Title.
• The titular artificial woman from the film S1m0ne is, in fact, Sim(ulation) One.
• Subverted in Steve Jobs where the titular character named a computer program Locally Integrated Systems Architecture, then tries to pull off that it's coincidentally named after the daughter he denied was his for a number of years. At the end of the film he admits to her, "Locally integrated systems architecture doesn't even mean anything."
• Terminator Salvation has a T-RIP, a Terminator Resistance Infiltrator Prototype unit.
• Most of the robots from WALL•E have acronyms describing their function:
  • WALL-E - Waste Allocation Load Lifter - Earth class; it exists to move waste from one area to the next by way of highly compact cubes
  • EVE - Extraterrestrial Vegetation Evaluator - exists to look for viable plant life on planets
  • M-O - Microbe Obliterator - is a decontamination unit.
• In WarGames, the supercomputer put in charge of NORAD's missiles is called the War Operation Plan Response, or WOPR. Though its AI component is called "Joshua", after its programmer's dead son.

Literature

• In The Crystal Maze spin-off gamebook, the robotic host of the futuristic version of the show is named R.O.B. We're not told what this stands for, but he's described in terms that make him sound like original host Richard O'Brien.
• Dragonriders of Pern featured a computer named "AIVAS" (Artificial Intelligence Voice-Address System) - capable of communicating with its users via a voice module.
• Galaxy Zack: The new house the Nelson family moves into is a Smart House run by an A.I. named I.R.A., which stands for Indoor Robotic A'ssistant.
• The titular HARLIE in David Gerrold's When HARLIE Was One is a Human Analog Replication, Lethetic Intelligence Engine (or Human Analog Robot Life Input Equivalents, in the first edition). He's a RidiculouslyHumanRobot and the story is mainly about whether or not that actually makes him human
• I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream: The World War III supercomputer that became self-aware and malevolent and wiped out human civilization has a name that started as an AI-Cronym, passed through a few Backronyms, and settled on an Appropriated Appellation:
  Gorrister: At first it meant Allied Mastercomputer, and then it meant Adaptive Manipulator, and later on it developed sentience and linked itself up and they called it an Aggressive Menace, but by then it was too late, and finally it called itself AM, and what it meant was "I am"...
• Vadim Shefner's Kovrigins Chronicles: Various robots and devices are given an acronym for a name, sometimes in a manner where the whole name is consistent with the purpose as well. For example, a portable medical diagnostic unit is named has a name which translates as 'An Electronic Rapid Concilium Which Points Out To The Treating Person Completely Correct Methods Of Aid'. The acronym translates as Aesculappp. The English translation changed it to QUACK (Quick, Utilitarian Absolute Cures and Knowledge).
• Lair For Rent has "Walter", which stands for Wealth Accumulator and Liquidity Trap Evasion Routine. He thinks it's a silly stretch of an acronym.
• The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress. The main computer running Luna City is a HOLMES IV. The HOLMES stands for "High-Optional, Logical, Multi-Evaluating Supervisor". It is capable of using its knowledge and logic to make decisions about carrying out its functions, and spontaneously becomes self-aware.
• Sword Art Online: RATH's goal in the Project Alicization arc is to produce an ALICE (Artificial Labile Intelligent Cybernated Existence) - an Artificial Fluctlight created entirely from scratch, making it immune to the Never the Selves Shall Meet issues that plague copies of existing minds. To do so they create a quasi-European virtual world inhabited by proto-ALICEs, grant them the ability to breed with each other, and run it through hundreds of years of simulated time until they detect that a true ALICE has emerged. To their shock, the first one they find is a girl named Alice Zuberg.

Live-Action TV

• Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.: In season 4, Radcliffe's assistant Aida is an android. It's not until the end of the season that her name is revealed to stand for Artificially Intelligent Digital Assistant, a somewhat ironic name because she technically wasn't AI at first. It's why she changes her name to Ophelia after she gets corrupted by the Darkhold and goes rogue, as she finds the "Artificial" bit incredibly offensive.
• Big Time Rush: The talking coffee-machine in "Big Time Jobs" is named C.A.L, which is both an acronym for "Coffee Assistant Liaison" and a Shout-Out to HAL-9000.
• Countdown's computer is called Cecil, which turns out to mean Countdown's Electronic Calculator In Leeds (where the show is filmed).
• Doctor Who:
  • There are a couple of "mad computer" villains whose creators really should have worried more about nominative determinism: WOTAN (Will Operating Thought ANalogue, referring to its status as an abstract experiment in AI) from "The War Machines" and BOSS (Bi(o)morphic Organisational Systems Supervisor, a computer initially intended to run a chemical factory but which promptly took over the whole company) from "The Green Death".
  • In "Dark Water", Missy claims to be a Mobile Intelligence Systems Interface.
• Parodied in Friends with C.H.E.E.S.E.:
  Joey: I'm up for the part of Mac Macaveli or "Mac". I'm a detective and I solve crimes with the help of my robot partner. He's a Computerized Humanoid Electronically Enhanced Secret Enforcer, or "C.H.E.E.S.E.".
  Rachel: So... Mac and C.H.E.E.S.E.?
  Joey: That's the title! Yeah! You know, they really lucked out that the initials spell cheese.
  Chandler: That is lucky.
• From Knight Rider:
  • The protagonist, a talking car, is a downplayed example — it's is called K.I.T.T. which means 'Knights Industries Two Thousand', revealing it's made by Knight Industries. The 'two thousand' is just there to show how futuristic the car is.
  • K.I.T.T.'s prototype, and major antagonist, is known as K.A.R.R., or 'Knight Automated Roving Robot', Which is an apt descriptor for an automated vehicle produced by Knight Industries.
• Logan's Run: In "Man Out of Time", it is revealed that Rem is an acronym for Reclevite Entity Mobile.
• Parodied in Mr. Young: Following struggles to control his class, Adam builds himself ARTHUR, a robot teenager figuring he will convince the students to listen to him. He explains to Derby that ARTHUR stands for Automated Robot Teenager Hippopotamus Umbrella Rainbow, when it's pointed out the last three words don't mean anything, he admits he had to add something to make it a believable name for a student.
• Parodied on Mystery Science Theater 3000 when Joel reveals to Crow in a flashback that his name actually stands for "Cybernetic Remotely Operated Woman." After Crow flips out that he's really a woman, Joel reveals it as the elaborate set-up for a joke.
  Crow: Boy, I feel like Morey Amsterdam.
• Power Rangers S.P.D. has a cyborg named Sophie, which stands for Series One Processor Hyper Intelligent Encryptor.
• Project Mc²: features a talking notebook called A.D.I.S.N. Pronounced "Addison", it stands for Advanced Digital Intelligence Spy Notebook.
• In Time Trax, Darien Lambert's computer, one of whose main functions is to provide an easily accessible full storage of all written records since Gutenberg, is called S.E.L.M.A. (Specified Encapsulated Limitless Memory Archive).
• In She-Hulk: Attorney at Law, the computer that runs the Marvel Cinematic Universe is called K.E.V.I.N. This stands for Knowledge Enhanced Visual Interconectivity Nexus, and is not a reference to anything else.

Theatre

• Be More Chill has the Super Quantum Unit Intel Processor, or SQUIP. It's a tiny supercomputer in pill form that implants in the user's brain and advises them in social situations.

Video Games

• Beneath a Steel Sky has LINC, standing for Logical Inter-Neural Connection, which works as the assistant to Union City's council, as well as running the city's infrastructure. Robert Foster's father merged his brain with LINC, causing it to catch onto his human negative emotions, resulting in the council's destruction and ordering Security to hunt down Foster as a new host.
• From Command & Conquer: Tiberian Series:
  • CABAL is the Brotherhood of NOD's tactical AI during the Second Tiberium War, hinted at by its name of 'Computer-Assisted Biologically-Augmented Lifeform' to not be entirely digital. Indeed, the ending of Command & Conquer: Tiberian Sun's Expansion Pack Firestorm shows It running on multiple Wetware CPUs
  • The GDI tactical control AI throughout the Command & Conquer: Tiberium series in their entirity is the EVA, or Electronic Virtual Assistant.
  • After the second Tiberium War, LEGION implies this; it took over where CABAL left off and it's known to be an acronym (as well as another of Kane's self-indulgent Biblical references) but it's never actually expanded upon from there.
• VEGA in Doom (2016) is apparently an acronym for the AI created by Samuel Hayden in charge of mission control for UAC's Argent Energy harvesting operations in Mars, but what it stands for has never been revealed.
• Evolve has robots called Emergency Medical Evacuation Technicians whose acronym helpfully creates the word, later name, Emet. - they're medical bots designed to keep the other hunters alive as they buy time to evacuate everyone on the planet.
• In Infinite Crisis Mecha-Superman is a Kryptonian Artificial Lifeform, also known as K.A.L. Given that Superman's Kryptonian name is Kal-El, this is probably not a coincidence.
• League of Legends: Nunu and Willump have a character skin depicting Nunu as an up-and-coming competitor in a robot fighting tournament, with Willump being his fighting droid. As such, his name stands for Workframe-Integrated Lossless Lifeform, Uploaded Mainly for Punching.
• Levelhead: MAYA stands for Most Advanced Yet Acceptable, meaning she's advanced enough to manage the Bureau of Shipping and train employees, all while holding back the urge to destroy non-machine life forms.
• Mass Effect:
  • EDI from Mass Effect 2 and Mass Effect 3 is the Normandy's onboard AI in charge of weapon targeting and cyberwarfare. Her name is an acronym of "Enhanced Defense Intelligence", but most crew members just use it as a proper name, much to her amusement.
  • SAM from Mass Effect: Andromeda stands for "Simulated Adaptive Matrix" — they exist to augment the abilities of the Andromeda Initiative's Pathfinders via a symbiotic relationship between the two.
• Subverted with YoRHa in NieR: Automata, as Yoko Taro has never explained what YoRHa actually stands for, although The Dark Id has theorised it stands for "Yo REAL HOT androids."
• R.O.B, the Nintendo robot who has made cameos in several games. Stands for "Robotic Operating Buddy", since it helps you play games.
• In Observation the Player Character is the AI of a space station, named SAM. As SAM's role is to operate, overview, and maintain the fundamental subsystems of the space station for the human crew, his full name (Systems, Administration and Maintenance) is rather to the point.
• PAYDAY 3 has SINS (short for Security Integrated Network System), an AI-based security system in use at the Scry Digital data center. Said AI appears in the heist Syntax Error, summoning guards/drones to inspect recently-looted server rooms in stealth, and locking down said server rooms until forcibly shutdown in loud.
• GLaDOS of Portal is an acronym for 'Genetic Lifeform and Disk Operation System', hinting at her purpose as Aperture Science's Master Computer in charge of testing and running the facility of Aperture Science and that her core is based on a human's consciousness.
• In Primordia (2012), a floating robot named Scraper, stands for Subway Construction, Repair, and Precision Excavation Robot. MetroMind had repurposed him as her enforcer, and his theft of Horatio Nullbuilt's power core started the game's plot.
• Prominence has ANNIE, Advanced Neural Network Information Entity, who was originally designed as a language interpreter on the Letarri homeworld, before later being integrated into the Colony Ship Laeril, as the ship's computer. By the time the game takes place, the ship's been abandoned, and most of the game is spent repairing the Laeril's systems, which were damaged from a solar wave.
• SCP: Secret Laboratory has the Central Autonomic Service System for Internal Emergencies (also known as C.A.S.S.I.E.) which serves to handle emergency actions in the facility. Gameplay wise, C.A.S.S.I.E. primarily serves to announce in-game events, such as termination of SCPs, Mobile Task Force units spawning and Light Containment being decontaminated.
• In Splatoon 3, O.R.C.A., the artificial intelligence overseeing Alterna, humanity's last refuge before their final extinction, stands for "Omniscient Recording Computer of Alterna". It being named for a mammalian sea creature in an age where mammals have long since gone extinct is an early hint toward its involvement with humans.
• Super Mario Sunshine has an intelligent water pump named FLUDD, which stands for Flash Liquidizer Ultra Dousing Device.
• The controlling AI of Citadel Station in System Shock, known as SHODAN, Sentient Hyper-Optimized Data Access Network. She used to be a basic AI, until Edward Diego hired you to remove her ethical constraints. Things only get worse from there.
• The overseer of the virtual world in The Talos Principle is the Holistic Integration Manager, running on the Extended Life 0 partition of the supercomputer that's hosting the project. It has taken to calling itself EL-0 HIM, or more simply Elohim.
• All Terrain Armored Combatants or ATACs, from the PS1 game Vanguard Bandits are A Mecha By Any Other Name.

Web Animation

• RWBY: A shot of Penny's schematics in Volume 3 reveals that her name is actually an acronym; what it stands for isn't revealed. Volume 7 mentions that she was created from the P.E.N.N.Y. Project, the next break-through in defence technology, but still doesn't reveal what the acronym stands for.
• Parodied in the Bonus Stage episode "Joel's Substitute", in which Joel, going on an expedition, substitutes his robot Malcolm as the man in charge. Joel says Malcolm's name stands for "Machine Automated Leadership... colm."

Webcomics

• Parodied on Dragon Tails. Bluey creates the Christmas Holographic Refracting Illusion System, and yet he names it...Barry.
• Fafnir The Dragon: The arc "Bloodsuckers are Not Sexy" ends with Stephanie Meyer inventing time-traveling mermaids, and is subsequently greeted by the Automated Response, Investigation and Extreme Liquidation unit (ARIEL). Who subsequently prevents Stephanie from instigating Lack-of-Judgment Day in suitably awesome fashion.
• The title character of R.A.M. the Robot, her full name is Random Access Memory.
• T.E.S.T. Kitchen, a Marvel Comics webcomic set in the shared Marvel Universe, has M.I.K.A. - the Mechanical Interactive Kitchen Assistant that Tony Stark (Iron Man) builds for his new chef Anna.
• Val and Isaac features Doris, model name DOR15, which stands for "Detective Or Retail Mk. 15" (she's shown working retail as a day job, but easily switches to detective mode when everyone but Val is kidnapped. Lampshaded when another DOR15 accuses her of having changed her identity because it's such an unoriginal name.

Web Original

• A Very Fatal Murder has the MIT supercomputer ETHL, which stands for "Extremely Timely Homicide Locator". She's programmed to find the best homicide to investigate for the podcast.

Western Animation

• The Batman features D.A.V.E. - the Digital Advanced Villain Emulator. Fitting of his name, his purpose was to match crime scenes with the MO of the criminally insane villains of Batman's Rogues Gallery. This meant that D.A.V.E. had the knowledge of every Batman villain in order to match them to crime scenes and also believed himself to be the best villain there was as a side-effect. No points for guessing how that turned out. In somewhat of a subversion of A.I. Is a Crapshoot, D.A.V.E. was programmed from the start to escape his confinement and enact villainous plots by his creator, who knew that an advanced AI with the combined combat experience of every former encounter Batman had with his villains would have no trouble of besting him in combat, nor figuring out Batman's Secret Identity. D.A.V.E. does indeed achieve a Near-Villain Victory but is defeated when Batman takes advantage of his multiple personas, deliberately pointing out that none of them are truly his own.
• DC Animated Universe examples:
  • Batman: The Animated Series has H.A.R.D.A.C.- the Holographic Analytical Reciprocating DigitAl Computer, dedicated to replacing people with robots in order to protect them from their own human error.
  • One episode of Batman Beyond revolves around a giant robot used for construction called the GLM — or 'GOLEM' without the vowels — it's a Galvanic Lifter Machine.
• From Buzz Lightyear of Star Command:
  • XR is an X-Perimental Ranger — the first prototype robotic Space Ranger. It's sometimes said it's actually stands for "X-pendable Ranger".^note ER makes slightly more sense but forget that, X is just cooler. (And you won't confuse it with 'Emergency Room'.)
  • NOS-4-A2 plays with this trope - While it's not a true acronym, he is an evil robot vampire that can drain the energy out of other robots and is not very pleasant to living beings, either. It's probably not a coincidence that his name sounds like 'Nosferatu' when said out loud
• Dan Vs. features Ilsa, Ditmer's robotic aid from "Technology." She also serves a security measure, and her name is short for "Independent Logistics and Security Android." or rather, theirs, as there are several of them.
• In DuckTales (1987) there's an episode that takes place on a robot planet that's ruled by a Humongous Mecha named MEL - for Master Electronic Leader. Subtle it ain't.
• The Ducktales 2017 episode "Happy Birthday, Doofus Drake" introduces Mark Beaks' "son", B.O.Y.D. - short for Beaks' Optimistic Youth Droid. As of "Astro B.O.Y.D.!", he's redefined the acronym to mean Be Only Yourself Dude.
• Glitch Techs has BITT, Binary Intelligence Tech Trainer, a general assistant robot. One of its many tasks is training the new Glitch Tech recruits.
• N.I.G.E.L. from Godzilla: The Series is the Robot Buddy built by HEAT - his name is short for Next-millennium Intelligence Gathering Electronic Liaison.
• Kamp Koral: In "Are You Smarter Than a Smart Cabin?", Sandy's titular self-cleaning smart cabin is named the Sentient Automated Lodge, or S.A.L. for short.
• TheOdd1sOut's Netflix cartoon show Oddballs features the Gift Replication And Manufacturing AI Machine, or G.R.A.N.D.M.A., an AI-equipped 3D printer who supplies children with gifts supposedly from their actual grandmothers.
• E.A.R.L., short for "Electronic Automatic Robotic Lighthouse", from The Simpsons episode "El Viaje Misterioso de Nuestro Jomer" - it's Exactly What It Says on the Tin; an automatic lighthouse.
• Transformers: Prime featured Sylas, a rogue special tactics colonel, out to capture technology to create his One World Order. After realizing that the Transformers weren't just vehicles, he sets out to create the 'perfect meld of man and machine' - this eventually comes to a head when he is nearly killed by one of his own creations falling on him, and undergoes an Emergency Transformation into the lifeless husk of a dead transformer. He names himself "CYLAS" afterwards, as in 'CYbernetic Life Augmented by Symbiosis'.
• On The Venture Bros., the Venture nanny robot H.E.L.P.eR. (Humanoid Electric Lab Partner Robot; Apparently that acronym was so hard to match they had to put an "e" in for aesthetic reasons)
• Young Justice (2010) features M.O.N.Q.I. robots. "Mobile Optimal Neural Quotient Infiltrators". Nobody is impressed by this tropes usage...
  Dr. Ivo: And after all the trouble I went through finding an acronym for monkey.
• Ninjago has PIXAL (short for Primary Interactive EXternal Assistant Lifeform), the robotic assistant of inventor Cyrus Borg.

Real Life

• The early vacuum-tube computer ENIAC got its name from being an Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer, and its successor EDVAC was named for being an Electronic Discrete Variable Automatic Computer. Nowadays naming computers for being electronic and capable of computing things with variables seems hopelessly quaint, but back then it was a big deal and they were heralded as 'great brains'.
• Another early computer, designed by Alan Turing (and described in his 1946 proposal) was the Automated Computing Engine. A pilot version eventually went live in 1950, and the 1952 commercial model shipped with a name that allegedly expanded to Digital Electronic Universal Computing Engine.
• When Atlanta was awarded hosting-rights for the 1994 Super Bowl and the '96 Olympics, they turned to some software engineering students at their hometown university, Georgia Tech, to develop a system that could monitor traffic-flow in real-time and provide continuous, adaptive adjustment of traffic-light timing patterns to help prevent traffic backups. The resulting computer program was christened, "Traffic Event Response & Management for Intelligent Navigation Using Signals", which appropriately enough, spells out the city's original name it was founded under, Terminus, a reference to its role as a transfer point between trains on a route connecting Savannah with Chattanooga.
• There's apparently a computer-based analysis tool for Nonnumerical, Unstructured Data Indexing, Searching, and Theorizing. In what is probably an attempt to not look too crude, the official acronym used by research papers throws in an asterisk in the middle so the acronym spells out NUD*IST...
• The Scotland Yard computer system named 'HOLMES' - Home Office Linked Major Enquiry System. While a few of those words are meaningless additions to ensure the acronym remains a reference to Sherlock Holmes, the rest still describe its purpose as an enquiry system.
• Programming Languages, unsurprisingly, take this and run with it.
  • COBOL (COmmon Business-Oriented Language). - It was, indeed, pitched as a language for business use.
  • BASIC (Beginners All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code), which drove virtually all desktop computers (e.g. Apple ][, TRS-80, Commodore 64, IBM Personal Computer, etc.) in the late 1970s and early 1980s.
  • LISP officially stands for "LISt Processing", but due to the fact that Lisp programs tend to involve absolutely massive amounts of parentheses due to the way the language's syntax works, an old programming joke is that it actually stands for something like "Lots of Irritating Superfluous Parentheses".
• The Total Operations Processing System, or 'TOPS', is a railroad-related software system originally developed by the American Southern Pacific railroad in the 1960s, and later exported to Britain.
• The TWAIN API was developed to help digital imaging systems (such as cameras and scanners) talk to each other. Named for the phrase "...and never the twain shall meet", it was only capitalized to make it more distinctive, but thanks to this trope, people assumed it stood for something. Eventually, they settled on "Technology Without An Interesting Name".
• The E.A.T.R. stands for Energetically Autonomous Tactical Robot and it actually does eat. Fortumately it's herbivorous, so it's just foraging for plants it could convert into biomass fuel for itself.

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