What does the ng stand for in Angular.js directives

275
votes

Angular.js uses several directives prefixed with ng like below:

ng (base directive)

ng-switch
ng-repeat
ng-view

I was wondering if anyone knew what ng stood for because I couldn't find it in the docs. Is it an acronym for something?

7
angularjs
I say forget it even exists and use the standards compliant data-prefix instead. - ACJ
@ACJ Hmm... I thought that ng was the default prefix in AngularJS. What should be used instead, according to your experience? - Konrad Viltersten
@KonradViltersten, the ng- prefix is the default. However, the data- prefix is a more standards-compliant way to achieve the same result. If you’re concerned with mixing up Angular related stuff with plain old HTML, you can of course also use a data-ng- prefix. That’s perfectly valid. - ACJ
Does it have any connection with Andrew Ng? - Mohammed H

7 Answers

279
votes

The prefix ng stands for "Angular;" all of the built-in directives that ship with Angular use that prefix. Similarly, it is recommended that you do not use the ng prefix on your own directives in order to avoid possible name collisions in future versions of Angular.

From the FAQ:

Why is this project called "AngularJS"? Why is the namespace called "ng"?

Because HTML has Angular brackets and "ng" sounds like "Angular".

43
votes

I guess there are not many Star Trek fans among you. "ng" stands for Next Generation, as Angular is the next generation of HTML.

"Enhanced" HTML I would say xD.

32
votes

I thought they took an arbitrary subsection of the Angular name and used it as the name space:

aNGular

Plus "NG" does not sound like Angular; no matter which way you say it.

9
votes

ng is an abbreviation of Angular.

Programmers don't like to code long names, so they keep it short and that makes it a bit more cryptic. If you look at Assembler, you know what I mean with ADD, JMP etc. JQuery is the name, the $ is what you use. Angular is the name, ng is what you use.

5
votes

NG stands for "Next Generation".

It is used in many applications as a suffix, specially in Linux. Example: syslog-ng and Aircrack-ng.

3
votes

According to the AngularJS Miscellaneous FAQ:

Why is this project called "AngularJS"? Why is the namespace called "ng"?
Because HTML has Angular brackets and "ng" sounds like "Angular".

0
votes

This guy is a Google superstar, I think ng is a part of their culture.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Ng