Umbraco
image with a shirt

Why are we called Umbraco?

What's the story behind the name? šŸ› 

The search for a unique name 

The story behind our name begins in the early 2000s. Many CMS companies at that time either had ā€˜webā€™ or ā€˜siteā€™ in their name. Umbraco Founder, Niels Hartvig, however, wanted something a bit more unique.

He wanted to create a name that could be a metaphor for what he wanted Umbraco to enable people to do. 

One thing Niels wasnā€™t good at, at the time, was assembling and building things. And yet he had managed to assemble several pieces of furniture from IKEA using nothing but his own skills and an Allen key - a tool we in Denmark call an ā€˜UmbraconĆøgleā€ ...or do we? šŸ¤”


Named after a well-known tool

So Niels thought, "why not call the company Umbraco?"

A name that marks Umbraco as being a simple tool that will enable you to build marvellous solutions for your clients.

A tool thatā€™s supposed to build your confidence and make you believe in your own ability to build things. A tool that enables you to do a lot more than you think you can. 

After a quick search on Google, Niels decided to get the trademark, and thatā€™s how the name was chosen - which also explains why Umbracoā€™s first logo consisted of hexagons which is the iconic shape of the Allen key (or Hex Key).Image of a shirt


... but Umbraco is, in fact, a spelling mistake 

What most Danes donā€™t know though, is that the tool is spelt ā€˜Unbrako-nĆøgleā€™ - an abbreviation for ā€˜unbreakableā€™ and a name that was already trademarked. Which means that "Umbraco" is actually a spelling mistakeā€¦ or at least in Denmark šŸ˜†

Sometimes, to this day, we still get people who request Allen keys from us. 

And while we canā€™t help you assemble your next IKEA furniture, we can help you make your journey in building digital solutions a little bit simpler šŸ˜‰