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Presumably the "Ti" in TikZ comes from Till Tantau. If so, what does the rest of the name stand for? If not, why is the package named that way?

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    TikZ stands for "TikZ ist kein Zeichenprogramm". (I read it as "Till ist kein Zauberer". ;-) – user121799 Apr 3 '18 at 22:47
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    @marmot But then it's not recursive anymore. – Henri Menke Apr 3 '18 at 22:51
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    @HenriMenke Yes, that's precisely why I'm memorizing it that way, otherwise I would run out of memory very quickly! ;-) – user121799 Apr 3 '18 at 22:53
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It's a recursive acronym and it is explained in the manual.

enter image description here

(German for: TikZ is not a drawing program)

I guess the first letter T stems from Till Tantau.

Just in case the question comes up, PGF stands for “portable graphics format“. From the manual as well (emphasis is mine):

enter image description here

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    But isn't it a Zeichenprogramm? At least, I'm sure that's what most people use it for – Skeleton Bow Apr 4 '18 at 1:00
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    @SkeletonBow It's in the docs: »In a sense, when you use TikZ you “program” your graphics, just as you “program” your document when you use TeX. This also explains the name: TikZ is a recursive accronym in the tradition of “GNU is not unix” and means “TikZ ist kein Zeichenprogramm,” which translates to “TikZ is not a drawing program,” cautioning the reader as to what to expect.« – Henri Menke Apr 4 '18 at 1:17
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    Pedantry: It's German for TikZ is no drawing program. – wizzwizz4 Apr 4 '18 at 10:13

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