“What’s in a name?”
“…A rose, by any other name, would smell as sweet” is another famous line from the Swan of Avon.[1]
At Beit, we have a similar story, albeit one which may not last as long or as widely in the collective memory.
The company was founded originally as “CK Modelling” after the two founders. Sadly, we soon discovered that there was a nightclub in Chicago of the same name which won out in the SEO race. This raised a smile but was not, we felt, entirely fitting. As we introduced new partners, discussion of the name evolved and our CTO proposed “Beit” which is a central location in Imperial College; his Alma Mater.
The Beit Quadrangle (right) is arguably the social heart of the college and includes Beit Hall[2] which lets rooms to visitors in the vacations. The Union Bar is not what it was when the two Founders first shared a glass or two there – but then, what is? The whole Quad was funded by donations from Sir Alfred Beit (1853-1906) at the beginning of the 20th century (see his Wiki page). Pictures of the Quad from Wikipedia.
Beit also means house (as well as home in some sources) in Arabic and Hebrew which makes us all feel warm and friendly. It is also a metric in Arabic poetry.
More pertinent to technology, many of our readers will know that the “byte” is a basic unit of “memory” comprising 8 bits. We all recall early laptops with hard drives of a few megabytes or less. Our most recent purchase is 512 Gigabytes but it could have been a Terabyte. If you are curious about these matters, Wiki pages are a good place to start. Look at Moore’s law (the eponymous Gordon – an Intel founder – died in March 2023).
Oh, and by the way, Beit is pronounced “Bite” as in “Byte” making the (English) pun and NOT as in “Beet” (or “Beat”) or even “Be-it” (like albeit) as some have tried.
So, now you know!
[1] a.k.a. William Shakespeare (1564-1616) Romeo & Juliet Act II Sc ii
[2] https://www.imperial.ac.uk/visit/summer-accommodation/central-london/beit-hall/ and on Booking.com