Ideas for a new name / icon

[pol-rivero]

See candidates

Click the link above for the preliminary list of candidates. I'll keep it for a few days to see if I missed any popular suggestions. After that, I'll create a poll with the candidates so everyone can vote for their favorite one.

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Several people have raised their concerns about potential GitHub trademark violations (#50, #137, #138), so I thought we should unify all those discussions here and choose one definitive name + logo to use going forward.

Please suggest your names and/or logo mockups here, and vote for any suggestion you like so I can see which ones are the most liked. Thank you for collaborating!

Current candidates

These are names that have received some traction from the community, and we found no negative associations or other blockers that could prevent us from using them.

• Desktop Plus
• Branched+

What will change

• Project name/logo used in the GitHub repo.

• Window title and icon used in the app.

• Name of installation and config directories. I'll see if we can automatically migrate the settings on the first startup.
  Otherwise, you can manually migrate the config by renaming the directory. For example, in Linux:

  mv -T "$HOME/.config/GitHub Desktop Plus" "$HOME/.config/<new application name>"

• Name and icon shown in the "About" page
  

What will NOT change

• The GitHub OAuth application. This means that when logging in with a GitHub account you will still see the GitHub Desktop name and logo. This is non-negotiable.
  

• The app's behavior or style. For example, there will be no changes to the app's CSS, color palette, or icon set.

• In general, any code change that differs from the upstream in a way that isn't absolutely necessary.

When will this change be made

I won't have time to do any of this until June. If we still haven't decided on a good name by then, the change will be postponed indefinitely until we find a suitable candidate.

[matebitte]

Edit for a small fyi:

names containing „Git“ are prohibited

moving on then

following up on #138, I'd propose one uniform icon across launcher/de-menu, distribution (flathub) and in app (about modal).

For reference, this is the status quo:

Upstream	Linux	Linux, but flatpak	Mac	Windows

Weather this this variant is accepted or not, pr #138 does show all the places where an icon should be changed.

Reasoning

• Color
  • While I appreciate the initiative of creating distinction, I do not think color is the way to go (apple design guidelines, neat paper on ux & color blindness )
  • In a nod to upstream, id stick with purple
  • ...in case color bikeshedding does start, my vote goes to a green gradient incorporating #496D4A or #01aa6c (but not together)
• icon
  • this is a fork with some plus -> a branch with a plus
  • for sake if simplicity, I took one from an icon pack under an open license (feather / lucide)
• look
  • simply the default icon generator for macOS

[pol-rivero]

I think this would be a really nice logo for "GitHub Desktop Plus," as it keeps the GitHub Desktop purple and the icon includes a "+" sign. I also like how simple it is.

Edit: It also works nicely for "Desktop Plus". See comment below.

I'm not sure if it will make as much sense with a different name, though. Since we are fully rebranding, we will probably need to find a suitable name first and then see which logo options fit well.

Also, just a small correction on the status quo: The app does use the correct icon on Windows.

The only platforms with a different icon are Flatpak (intended) and macOS (bug).

[ghnp5]

I use the flatpak version, and I always get confused withe icon. Besides the fact that most everything I use is already blue: LibreOffice Writer, Thunderbird, Dolphin, VS Code, Tabby. I used to be able to quickly find GitHub Desktop when I used the GitHub Desktop port in flatpak (which uses the original purple icon, but that one stopped updating, so it's very old now).

I love everything about GitHub Desktop Plus, except the icon 🤣

The proposed icon above is very nice!

[abdellatif-laghjaj]

following up on #138, I'd propose one uniform icon across launcher/de-menu, distribution (flathub) and in app (about modal).

For reference, this is the status quo:

Upstream Linux Linux, but flatpak Mac Windows

Weather this this variant is accepted or not, pr #138 does show all the places where an icon should be changed.

Reasoning

• Color

  • While I appreciate the initiative of creating distinction, I do not think color is the way to go (apple design guidelines, neat paper on ux & color blindness )
  • In a nod to upstream, id stick with purple
  • ...in case color bikeshedding does start, my vote goes to a green gradient incorporating #496D4A or #01aa6c (but not together)

• icon

  • this is a fork with some plus -> a branch with a plus
  • for sake if simplicity, I took one from an icon pack under an open license (feather / lucide)

• look

  • simply the default icon generator for macOS

I loove it

[matebitte]

regarding the name, why not just drop the Hub and Desktop? Technically its just git plus a gui

-> "Git Plus"

[okjigu]

"Desktop Plus" definitely works.

"Codesktop", while nice, can be taken for screensharing / coworking tools ("co-desktop").

[pol-rivero]

@okjigu That's fair.
I also think "Desktop Plus" is a very good option.

[FrostBird347]

It had never occurred to me that AnyHub could have that sort of an association, that's really unfortunate.
I feel like the issue with Codesktop is that it's name doesn't reveal what kind of program it is to a user who is hearing of it for the first time (it could just as easily be the name for an IDE, and while it's rare there are some people who use version control programs for things unrelated to programming... Though to be clear the latter isn't remotely common enough to really be a factor in choosing a name). It also isn't the easiest name to mentally read for the first time (that isn't to say that it's actually difficult or anything, it just takes a significant amount more effort to read at first and someone could easily misread it as "Co-Desktop" instead of "Code-sktop"), which probably played a factor in people's initial negative impression. I am still not happy with it, but I have gone from being completely against it to being mostly neutral so I think it is the sort of name that can grows on you. I feel like there must be something similar sounding that would work better, but I haven't been able to come up with anything better yet.
As for Desktop Plus, I think suffers from Codesktop's first issue even more since Codesktop at least starts with "Code", while the "Desktop" part of Desktop Plus doesn't directly hint at the project's purpose/function but instead just hints at the original program and expects the user to immediately recognise that link (which to be clear, hinting at the original program is a good thing... But without any direct hint towards it's purpose/function the chances of the user making that connection and thus understanding what the program does is far lower than it otherwise would be).

[QuentiumYT]

I think "Desktop Plus" is not very clear, I mean not enough.

I suggest keeping that part for sure, maybe adding a prefix like VCS, which is generic, self explanatory and doesn't differ much from the original name :)
VCS means Version Control System, it is widely used

VCS Desktop Plus

[pol-rivero]

@FrostBird347 That's really interesting. In my mind, there was only one possible way to read Codesktop (as "Co-Desktop"). Since my native languages are Catalan/Spanish, "Code-sktop" seems completely unthinkable. I suppose people from other cultures may view this completely differently.

Regarding "Desktop Plus", you are right in that we are completely relying on the "GitHub Desktop" association, but honestly I don't view that as a problem. I don't expect anyone to use our fork without having used GitHub Desktop extensively in the past. For non-programming folks that use Git for other fields, the upstream project (GitHub Desktop) will be a much more polished experience.

[Croydon]

I tried to find different terms for "code" and for "hub"/"desk" etc, but most combinations are already taken for something code related.
I could not find a single combination that hasn't been taken by something at all, but Source Garage does not seem to be taken yet be some app.

I guess otherwise we could try to get creative and choose a word, that does not have any of those terms directly in the name.

[FrostBird347]

After reading all the comments posted so far here are my thoughts:

• Personally I like AnyHub Desktop the most of all the suggested names. It's memorable, the name mirrors the project's purpose/function/vibe (along with it's history/origin) and it doesn't sound too similar to anything else that I am aware of.
• I fear Forge Desktop would risk causing confusion in people who are familiar with Minecraft modding as Forge is the name of the game's most well known mod loader, while CurseForge is the name of a Minecraft mod distribution platform that's also likely still the most well known Minecraft mod distribution platform.
• Desktop for Git isn't a terrible option, but it personally feels a little vague and unmemorable to me.
• I also fear many people will misinterpret the "Uni" part of UniHub Desktop as "University" instead of "Universal", as that's what my brain keeps trying to read it as.
• Source Garage is memorable and does convey the project's function, but it has quite a different vibe to what I interpreted this project to have. It's not necessarily a bad thing, but if this turns out to be a sentiment shared by a lot of people then it might be best to avoid this name.

Of course these are all just my own personal opinions. Please consider sharing your own 2 cents worth on the proposed names if you haven't: The more responses we have the clearer it will be which names are widely preferred, hopefully. It doesn't have to be anything detailed, simply stating the name you like the most (or even the fact that you don't like any of the suggested names if that's true) is still useful in getting a picture of what people want.

After updating, you will need to manually migrate the config by renaming the directory.

Is it possible to make the program automatically attempt to migrate the config if the new directory is missing when the old one exists? If it isn't possible to migrate the old config as the app is launching, then a warning popup after the app has started if it detects the old config while the current config was just created could be a decent compromise.

[pol-rivero]

I completely agree with the summary of each proposal (thanks everyone for sharing your thoughts, by the way ❤️). At the moment I'm also leaning more towards AnyHub Desktop, but I'd probably drop the "Desktop" part because it makes it sound like "AnyDesk", which is a well-known brand. Maybe "AnyHub Git Client"?
I think there might be a better option, see #140 (comment)

[QuentiumYT]

I'll stay close to the original "GitHub Desktop" to explain it's kind of the same app and not to confuse people that search this app. So <smth>Hub Desktop matches more. IMO adding Client at the end is just taking a bit more space and there is no "Server" version of the app (unlike Filezilla client / Filezilla server)

[okjigu]

I'd also state that "Uni-" anything could also be quickly associated with the Unity game engine.

[Croydon]

At this point AnyHub Desktop is my personal favorite.

[ewgdg]

I personally prefer a VCS-related name, so I was brainstorming a few options and also asked GPT for feedback.

GPT suggested "Branchline Desktop". what do u think? not perfect though.
if you dont mind collision with another project, what about "ForkHub Desktop"? or maybe "ForkDesk"?

[ewgdg]

I was curious about how people react to AI's taste on name suggestion. If the suggestion comes from its training data then it might be something people like a lot for it to get sampled enough into the training data.

I am not a native speaker, and I learned my English from AI teachers. so I dont really know if the generated name is good or not.

Looks like people don't like it. But I guess it is a bit unfair if the judge is based on bias. Seems the word "AI" is enough to trigger people.

Regardless, I think this scenario is actually a proper use of LLM, not to replace your thinking, but to use it as a statistically informed vocabulary search tool, similar to how people use traditional theasaurus.

[FrostBird347]

I'll admit that I do have a bias against LLM generated names, but I think the main issues with Branchline Desktop, ForkHub Desktop and ForkDesk are that they hint at specific things associated with git repos instead of the repos itself.
It's kinda like naming a general purpose text editor "Config Manager" when it's intended use case also includes managing notes, writing code, and editing markdown files in addition to editing config files.
But that all being said, I'll reluctantly admit that "Branchline Desktop" isn't a bad name for a project imo: It rolls off the tongue easily and is memorable, I just don't think it works well with this project for the reasons described above.

[pol-rivero]

I agree that "Branchline Desktop" is a nice name. However, I searched on Google and it's also taken... https://branchline.dev

@FrostBird347 I'm not sure I understand what you mean with "they hint at specific things associated with git repos instead of the repos itself". For example, I don't think anyone would hear "Branchline Desktop" and assume it only manages branches. There are a lot of implicit basic functionalities that you assume you'll find in any Git client, regardless of the name.
For a real-world example: I don't think anyone sees https://git-fork.com and assumes it's only good for forking repos.

[FrostBird347]

Oh https://branchline.dev/ being an extension that generates AI summaries is really funny, they almost certainly also asked chatGPT for a name.

You wouldn't assume "Branchline Desktop" only manages branches, but you would assume that a significant amount of design/effort went into the user experience of managing branches, and that it would have features that are beneficial to people working on projects with many branches, features which aren't common in more general purpose repo managers.
As for https://git-fork.com/, most of the screenshots shown on the page reveal the project's focus on working in large projects that involve many branches and different users. So while it doesn't directly connect with it's function/purpose of managing repos, I would argue that large scale projects tend to receive many pull requests which all begin with a fork so the name does fit them a little better than it would fit us.
And to be clear I am not claiming that this is some golden rule that can't be broken or anything, it's just a downside that should be taken into account.

[satoru8]

Just found this today and have to say, I love it. Far better than the original. Since Im a GitLab user, the login and integration was a big win for me. I think the project should go with a completely new name rather than trying to keep ties to any existing platform. Its already far better than the original GitHub Desktop IMO, it deserves its own distinct identity.

I dont have any icon ideas. For the name Im thinking it should keep "Git" in it somewhere as that would help people find it while searching.

GitUI Plus would be my vote.

Few more suggestions.

GitDesk
GitStudio
GitWorkbench
GitUI Desktop

[ignatremizov]

Can't use "Git" apparently due to Git foundation trademarks - they were overwhelmed with trademark allowance requests so they just don't allow any new ones anymore :/

[thangckt]

[pol-rivero]

Unfortunately, Git's trademark policy doesn't allow that...

2.3 Prohibited usages of the Marks
You may not use the Marks in the following ways:

• In any way likely to cause confusion as to the identity of the Git Project, the provenance of its software, or the software's license.

• In any way that indicates a greater degree of association between you and the Git Project than actually exists.

• In any way that implies a designated successor to Git (e.g., "Git++" is not permitted).

• In any way that indicates that Git favors one distribution, platform, product, etc. over another except where explicitly indicated in writing by Conservancy.

[pol-rivero]

I was brainstorming possible names and @ghnp5's "CodeHub Desktop" made me think of the word: Codesktop. It's short and memorable (word play on Code + Desktop), and it hints on collaborating with others.
It's also basically unused, there is only an extremely old-looking app on on Apple's App Store, and it's homepage doesn't seem to even exist anymore.
The only problem it has is that @codesktop is already taken on GitHub, so I guess I'll keep the project under @pol-rivero.

What do you all think?

[pol-rivero]

@satoru8 I sent an email a few days back, but unfortunately it seems they are currently prohibiting any names containing "Git" without exception. Here is the response:

---

Dear Pol—

I’m the General Counsel of Software Freedom Conservancy, the nonprofit home of the Git Project. The Git Project Leadership Committee (PLC) recently changed the trademark policy to prohibit portmanteaus of the GIT trademark without exception. See https://git-scm.com/about/trademark. The reason is the volume of requests that we get for permission, which was turning the PLC into more of a trademark licensing board than a project management board. The PLC was concerned that the requests for permission were taking too much time away from managing and developing Git.

Good luck with your project!

Best,

Rick G. Sanders
General Counsel
Software Freedom Conservancy

[satoru8]

Ouch that's unfortunate, but I can understand why. As they said they get endless amounts of requests. Oh well! I still think i like MultiRepos or something along those lines the best. I did a quick github/lab and google search didnt see any real hits on it. Thoughts?

[pol-rivero]

MultiRepos is nice and easy to memorize, but I did a Google search and it seems to be a synonym for polyrepos (opposite of monorepo), so there would be a lot of noise for anyone trying to search for our project.

[satoru8]

Thats fair, and speaks to my initial concerns about the rename. In the OP you have AnyHub Desktop which sounds good. I wouldn't over think the name too much tbh.

[ignatremizov]

My vote's for "GH Desktop Plus"

[khaled-0]

Codesktop sounds so weird (personal opinion)
IMO we should keep the Git prefix.

I asked LLM for suggestions and "GitGlass" sounds good

[pol-rivero]

Unfortunately a Git prefix is not allowed.

From https://git-scm.com/about/trademark (emphasis by me):

In addition, you may not use any of the Marks as a syllable in a new word or as part of a portmanteau (e.g., "Gitalicious", "Gitpedia") used as a mark for a third-party product or service.

[matebitte]

what’s going on with all the people asking LLMs for names?

If you want a marketing campaign that sucks your soul out of your body because it’s that boring, whatever. This is a community project, made by people because they like creating stuff for people who like creating stuff (and version it).

Also, just some fun little papers for all you heavy LLM users:

• you are literally getting dumber (Liu et al. 2026, Kosmyna et al. 2025)
• not only training, but inference wreaks havoc upon our planet, this should be used wisely and not for random shit (Nordgren 2022)
• it’s reproducing humanities flaws like a stochastic parrot (Bender et al. 2021), because word embeddings are biased (Bolukbasi et al. 2016), and while there’s great progress, it’s still a big issue (Rakshit et al. 2024)
• yes, you can work around debiasing with filters. But the filters are generally so bad, that with enough fuzzing you can generate images of sexual violence (aka rape) of children in multimodal models. Which is odd, because that would mean (child) sexual abuse material is in the training data. And that couldn’t be possible true? Right? RIGHT?! (Thiel and Hancock 2023, Birhane et al. 2021)

TL,DR: maybe think twice before using LLMs in the future (or you’ll literally unlearn thinking lol). And cheers to all the folks who are actually thinking about how to rename and this neat project, you are awesome

[ghnp5]

I didn't use AI at all when I suggested CodeHub Desktop !!

[guplem]

This is irrelevant to the discussion

[ignatremizov]

Why not just "GH Desktop Plus"? It makes it clear it's is a successor to GitHub Desktop, and doesn't use "Git" mark at all, and transition is smoothest.

[ignatremizov]

fwiw I prefer "GH" over "GHub"

[pol-rivero]

Even if we don't explicitly use the word "GitHub", "GH" can still be easily interpreted as an acronym of "GitHub" (especially when followed by "Desktop"), which would be misleading.
See: https://www.uspto.gov/trademarks/search/likelihood-confusion and https://docs.github.com/en/site-policy/content-removal-policies/github-trademark-policy#what-is-a-github-trademark-policy-violation

[jordan4ibanez]

I think you should call this UltraVCS-Desktop or maybe UltraVCS-GUI. Because this now transcends Github with multiple accounts on alternatives to github. You're basically just using a monster of a vcs gui. And because plainly, this is the best one you can get your hands on in the open source ecosystem, it's just ultravcs. Or if no one likes that, maybe you could have LightingVCS-Desktop or just Lightning-VCS. So people know how extremely productive you can be with it. Fast as lightning.

Maybe the icon would have a lightning bolt in it because it makes your ability to work on your repo fast as lightning. That purple modal icon but instead of the smooth lines it's two lightning bolts coming out of a cloud to represent how fast you can go.

UltraVCS 🛠️ Desktop

Ultra 🛠️ VCS

Lightning ⚡ VCS

I think I am having too much fun with this.

[VikMorroHun]

I was suprised that trademark violation could occur with a free software distributed under the MIT license. This looks a bit silly. Anyway "Desktop Plus" is fine. Hopefully I won't forget to rename the folder so I can continue to use it.

[VektorOO7]

Since the icon is a branch with a +, how about "Branched+". I didn't find any apps using this name, and although there is no "Branched", I like the sound of it with the +. Also, in case you would want a more developer styled name, you can also go for "Branched++" and add another + in the icon.

[khaled-0]

+1 on Branched+

[okjigu]

I like this one too! +1 on Branched+

[pol-rivero]

This could be a serious alternative to "Desktop Plus".
I still like "Desktop Plus" more, because we are primarily a GitHub Desktop fork and I find "Desktop" much more memorable and easier to pronounce than "Branched". However, I see no serious problems with "Branched+", so we can include it as a candidate in a final vote.

[ghnp5]

I find "Desktop" much more memorable and easier to pronounce than "Branched".

Me too! Totally agree with this.

[abdellatif-laghjaj]

Looks good man, creative name

[pol-rivero]

Thank you to everyone who contributed ideas or voted for your favorites! ❤️

I have reviewed all the suggestions in the discussion and have compiled a list below:

Candidates

These are names that have received some traction from the community, and we found no negative associations or other blockers that could prevent us from using them.

• Desktop Plus (suggested independently by multiple people).

• Branched+ (link)

I'll keep this comment here for a few days to see if I missed any popular suggestions. After that, I'll create a poll with the candidates so everyone can vote for their favorite one.

Discarded names

Click to expand

Infringes on trademarks for "Git" or "GitHub"

• Git Plus (link)

• GitUI Plus, GitDesk, GitStudio, GitWorkbench, GitUI Desktop (link)

• GitGlass (link)

• GH Desktop Plus (link)

Very similar (or identical) to an existing company or product

• Agitea (link)

• Forge Desktop (link)

• Branchline Desktop (link)

Negative existing associations

• AnyHub Desktop (link) (problem)

Didn't receive enough votes / support comments

• Codesktop (link)

• Desktop for Git (link)

• UniHub Desktop (link)

• CodeHub Desktop (link)

• VCS Desktop Plus (link)

• Source Garage (link)

• ForkHub Desktop (link)

• ForkDesk (link)

• UltraVCS-Desktop, UltraVCS-GUI, LightingVCS-Desktop, Lightning-VCS (link)

[ghnp5]

Thank you for taking in.consideration all suggested options!!

Desktop Plus seems much better than Branched+, to me :)