NLP Connections - the ultimate NLP resource on the internet - and the largest NLP forum!

There seem to be many versions around of how Neuro Linguistic Programming got its name.

I am curious, how many different stories are out there, and what have people heard about the origins of the name ? Thought it could be fun to read all the different versions here.

Hi Cameron,

If you look at the links on the left hand side of this page there is an interview with Richard Bandler, click on it and you can hear the big man himself describe how the name NLP came about.

Thanks,

Matt

Thanks Matt, done that. Richard tells one story there, I heard another at an NLP session. I wondered how many versions are out there, does Richard tell different ones at different trainings ? Does John Grinder tell other versions ? What about the stories from other sources ?

The story I heard at an NLP session was that Richard and John came up with the name together. The field they had started was going well, and they were together one evening, drinking champagne and discussing names among other things. At the end of more than one bottle, they decided calling their field Neuro Linguistic Programming was a good idea. The story is meant to have come from Robert Dilts.

In the interview, Richard tells a different version. Paraphrased, he was pulled over by the police and asked to give his occupation. He didn't like 'meta modeler' and looked down at the books on the floor of his car. He took a word from each of the titles of three books and 'Neuro Linguistic Programmer' was the result.

What other stories have others heard ?

I've heard the story about the books told over and over... and never any other stories about how NLP got its name.

Somewhere I read it was called for a week neuro-linguistic reprogramming and later droped the prefix "re". It was someone involved in ericksonian hypnosis who hanged around Bandler and Grinder for a while who wrote that in some forum I don't even remember the name or URL.

Someone said to me he heard Dilts say a couple of years ago that he came up with the name. I am not sure Robert would say that but this guy said that.

Who came up with the name?... how?... where and when? Is a big mistery but knowing Bandler he loves naming things. If you even go to Dilts encyclopedia you'll find things such as pragmagraphics and transderivetional morphology where he says "Bandler suggested...".
Richard tends to come up with ideas and names/titles.