How did Dogecoin get its name?

Dogecoin derives its name from the popular "Doge" meme that was circulating on the internet around the time of its creation. The "Doge" meme features a Shiba Inu dog with a distinctive facial expression, often accompanied by humorous, broken English captions in Comic Sans font.

The term "Doge" itself originated from a misspelling of the word "dog" in an episode of the Homestar Runner web series titled "Homestar Ruiner," released in 2005. The character Strong Bad refers to a Great Pyrenees dog as "so majestic" and exclaims, "Wow, such [adjective], much [noun], very [adjective], so [noun]."

The "Doge" meme gained widespread popularity on social media platforms like Reddit in the early 2010s, where users would share images of Shiba Inu dogs accompanied by text written in broken English, typically expressing thoughts and feelings in a playful and endearing manner.

When software engineers Billy Markus and Jackson Palmer created Dogecoin in December 2013, they chose to adopt the "Doge" meme as the mascot and branding for the new cryptocurrency. The name "Dogecoin" is a combination of "Doge" (the meme) and "coin" (reflecting its status as a cryptocurrency), capturing the playful and lighthearted spirit of the internet meme culture that inspired its creation.

Thus, Dogecoin was named after the popular "Doge" meme, which continues to be synonymous with internet humor and absurdity, reflecting the cryptocurrency's whimsical and community-driven origins.