Rosario Monachino
People are only just discovering the hidden meaning behind Tinder and its former name.
The popular dating app has roughly 75 million active users – who are either looking for a fling or for something serious.
It encourages those who use the app to swipe right on someone their attracted to and swipe left if they feel the opposite.
Even though the app launched in 2012, only now are people just realising the hidden meaning behind its name.
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It was founded by Sean Rad, Justin Mateen, and Jonathan Badeen and was initially called Matchbox.
However, the trio felt that the name was too similar to another dating site called Match.com – leading them to land on the name Tinder.
Despite it being the title of the iconic app, many people are unsure where the name actually comes from, with one person asking on Quora: “How did ‘Tinder’ get its name?”
According to Brit + Co, the founders liked the idea of the app creating a spark – which is why the logo is a flame – and stumbled on the word tinder in a thesaurus.
Others have responded to the question on Quora, with one writing: “The word ‘tinder’ refers to the start of a fire, drawing from the procedure of using small items that can be ignited to start things up.
“So then Tinder is the perfect name because a relationship needs small pieces of wood, twigs, and branches to get things going.
“Tinder is used to start the fire, but if the fire continues to burn, that fire will need more than the kick-start by Tinder.”
While someone else adds: “Tinder translates to spark in English. If you would carefully look at the Tinder logo it looks like a spark of fire.
“Metaphorically it represents the start of new social interactions in your life.”
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The question has event caught the attention of Badeen, who took the time to give a response on Quora.
He explains: “Originally, we were going to name the app ‘Matchbox’ and our design had incorporated fire imagery. We decided to abandon that name, but we really did like the fire aspect. It represented the idea of ‘finding a spark’.
“We came up with a lot of different names but really landed on Tinder one day when we were crossing Sunset Blvd. while reading out fire-related words from the thesaurus.”
The Tinder founder adds that while it maintained a ‘fire element’ they recognised it wasn’t a common word and that people might mistake it for the word ‘tender’.
“We thought was nice since we often think of ‘love me tender’ and ‘tender loving care’, Badeen continues.
“Those people might mistake the word Tinder as a trendy misspelling of the word, kind of like Flickr dropping the ‘e’. On top of all that, the word ‘Tinder’ just has a nice ring to it.
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