Every name has a meaning! Even the simplest names like my local grocery store "Johns Grocery" or "Bargain Shop” These names give an obvious clue to there meaning.

Then comes names like "Bungie" later I found out they created the name from a dirty, dirty joke. Most names of video game Developers I have figured out but then there is "Bethesda" I only recently learned how to properly say it now the meaning of name I have no Idea.

Why is it Called Bethesda, what does Bethesda mean? These I need to know!

Cheers :foodndrink:

Their offices are in Bethesda, Maryland.

EDIT: Correction, they used to be there. They've since moved to Rockville.

wingadingadingdong was already taken, so they just chose the name of the city they started in.

Yeah, they moved back in 1997 or something.

I've seen a few other places named Bethesda as well.

Yeah, it's a popular biblical name. Lots of places are named Bethesda.

Odd name still don't quite understand it to its fullest.

I didn't know that. Looked it up, interesting stuff.

Well, I learned my one thing for today, off to bed!

What other ways are there to pronounce Bethesda? It's pretty easy to figure out phonetically.

Also, Bethesda originated in Bethesda, Maryland.

Because it sounds cool, you silly.

splitting off of this thought - this is another reason why Bethesda is so weird. on top of their approach toward game development and their willingness to try anything as a publisher, they're like the only game-related anything left with such a simple name.

Bioware, Rockstar, 2K, Irrational, DICE, Activision, Electronic Arts, whatever - they're all flashy words, designed years ago to look cool and stand out. Bethesda's just Bethesda Softworks - software from Bethesda, Maryland. it's the kind of name that you'd see on database software in the '80s (which i'm pretty sure they did, actually), not AAA video games.

a delightfully outdated name for a mostly outdated view on how game development and publishing works, in all the best ways.

You guys have told him where the Bethesda name comes from but not what it means, sometimes even places have names that mean something. Like the very city I'm in, Reykjavík, means "bay of smoke", supposedly derived from when the Icelandic settlers discovered the bay they saw steam rising from parts of it with natural hot springs and somehow managed to mix up steam with smoke (maybe the words were not as well defined away from each other back then or something) heck it should be "Gufuvík" or "bay of steam" but then again that doesn't sound as cool.

Point being does Bethesda not mean anything beyond just being a generic name ? It doesn't have any roots further back in the history of the English language or perhaps even some other language. ?

As was mentioned a few posts up, it is a biblical name. Hebrew for "House of Grace".

The origin of Bethesda is, like Freddo said, Biblical. It refers the the Pool of Bethesda in Jerusalem described in the Gospel of John.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pool_of_Bethesda

EDIT: or like mcc84 said it could mean that

Ah I see, accidentally skipped over it since it was in a quoted bracket. Normally skip over quotes where there is no text to supplement them since I just figure someone is just emphasizing what someone else said. *bonks himself on his noggin* doh!

Bethesda means we get promising looking games like Prey 2 and Dishonored.

Oh. I'd hoped it was something to do with cheese. Oh well.

Actually, it's an instruction - Be The Sda! What's a Sda, you ask? Only the initiated may know.

Bethesda means:

"Oh bleeding crap! My car's being washed away by a broken water main!"

You have passed Mankar Camoran's Second Test! You have decoded his commentaries, and now you decoded the actual name of the company? OMFG NO WAY