CockroachDB, named for its resilience akin to the notorious survival skills of cockroaches, was conceptualized by co-founders Spencer Kimball and Peter Mattis as a highly available, scalable, and persistent open-source data storage solution. Despite its polarizing name, which evokes reactions ranging from curiosity to aversion, the database's durability and scale have become its defining features, attracting major clients like Netflix, Starburst, and Hard Rock Digital for their distributed, transactional workloads. The name embodies the core attributes of CockroachDB, representing an indomitable system that can withstand failures and continue operating seamlessly, much like its namesake. Cockroach Labs embraces the name and the feedback it generates, viewing it as an opportunity to highlight the database's robustness and reliability in handling mission-critical applications, supported by a community of developers and early adopters who appreciate the value of a resilient database platform.