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In software development, and I imagine in many other fields, we often make up temporary nicknames for new projects or features. These are not meant to be the real names for the end product and are often funny, playful, or sarcastic in nature. These are also not intended to be "codenames" that hide the nature of the project or feature. Is there a word for such nicknames?

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  • Related: english.stackexchange.com/q/448466/14666
    – Kris
    Commented Jun 1, 2018 at 11:33
  • note that "codename" is also used as an internal temporary name for a project, not necessarily hidden. See for instance the Wikipedia Wii article, section History/Name, first sentence: The console was known by the code name "Revolution" from May 11, 2004 when its codename was announced at Nintendo's 2004 pre-Electronics Entertainment Expo press conference in Los Angeles, California until April 27, 2006, immediately before E3
    – Pacopaco
    Commented Sep 2, 2020 at 15:21

1 Answer 1

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Working title or Production title

According to Wikipedia:

A working title, sometimes called a production title, is the temporary title of a product or project used during its development, usually used in filmmaking, television production, novel, video game development, or music album.

Working titles are used primarily for two reasons — the first being that an official title has not yet been decided upon, with the working title being used purely for the identification purposes, and the second being a ruse to intentionally disguise the real nature of a project.

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  • It's always better to include references and links to improve it. I've done it for you this time as an example. :)
    – NVZ
    Commented May 22, 2016 at 21:19

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