Unix was named (phonetically) by bwk. I don’t think he ever spelled it, but since it was a play on multics, he thought it was unics (you can ask him).
At the time, Unix was compiled on the central computer at Bell Labs (GE-635) that produced a PDP-7 paper tape. Usually, I just ran the tape and threw it away. When I needed to save a tape, I wrote “Unix” on the tape. It [the name] stuck after that.
Answer transcribed by moi:
Unix was named (phonetically) by bwk. I don’t think he ever spelled it, but since it was a play on multics, he thought it was unics (you can ask him).
At the time, Unix was compiled on the central computer at Bell Labs (GE-635) that produced a PDP-7 paper tape. Usually, I just ran the tape and threw it away. When I needed to save a tape, I wrote “Unix” on the tape. It [the name] stuck after that.