The company founders had worked at Microsoft for about a decade before starting the new company. Due to corporate policies about what constituted an acceptable project code name they were looking to give the company a name Microsoft would never allow.

The team came up with a list of ten names. Co-founder Chris Zimmerman showed the list to his wife for her opinion, and she responded that she did not care "as long as it isn't 'Sucker Punch'". Considering the opinion of a middle-aged woman would be completely contrary to the demographics of their target audience, they selected that name for the company.