Here's the story behind how Silicon Valley got its name

silicon chip

Silicon Valley's name was coined in the 1970s by electronic tabloid reporter Don Hoefler, who heard the phrase "Silicon Valley" during a business lunch.
Hoefler published a series of columns detailing the valley's semiconductor industry under the title "Silicon Valley USA." Hoefler is recognized as one of the first people to write about Silicon Valley as its own distinct community.

Silicon Valley is a household name, a hit TV series, and a term that's synonymous with some of the world's most innovator players and products in technology.

But when did we start calling Silicon Valley "Silicon Valley"? And what does the "silicon" part refer to, anyways?

Turns out, the southern region of the San Francisco Bay now known as Silicon Valley used to have a different name entirely. In the early 1900s, it was called the "Valley of Heart's Delight," a name inspired by the region's myriad orchards and acres filled with ripening fruit. But by the 1950s, a new industry had rolled into town: manufacturers and innovators of the silicon chip.

Silicon chips were an integral component of the semiconductor industry. To this day, they're used in just about everything that's computerized: cell phones, computers, printers, gaming devices, and even calculators. Silicon chips were a fundamental building block in the computing industry, making the region a natural magnet to anyone working in technology.

Despite the thriving silicon chip industry, Silicon Valley didn't officially receive its name until nearly 20 years later. The nickname is unanimously attributed to Don Hoefler, a technology news reporter for the tabloid Electronic News, who wrote a column about the valley's semiconductor industry in 1971.

According to James Vincler, a writer who worked with Hoefler in the '70s, Hoefler heard the term used at lunch with a marketer who referred to the Santa Clara Valley as "Silicon Valley." Hoefler's interest was immediately sparked. Vincler says, "I saw Don's eyes subtly light up like a poker player who had just filled a straight as he asked, 'Silicon Valley? Where'd that come from?' The marketer replied, 'Oh, that's just what the guys call it.'"

Over the course of the next three weeks, Hoefler penned a series on the silicon computer chip industry in Santa Clara. Each piece was emblazoned with the header, "Silicon Valley USA." The name stuck.

Ten years later, Hoefler reflected on it in a piece published in the San Jose Times. Hoefler wrote: “The rationale was simple enough: These revolutionary semiconductors are made in a valley, from silicon – not silicone, please – the second most-abundant chemical element ... on Earth. How was I to know that the term would quickly be adopted industry-wide, and finally become generic worldwide?”

But Hoefler is often credited for more than just the name Silicon Valley. Author Michael S. Malone says Hoefler's coverage of the valley in the 1970s may have played a fundamental role in developing the area's innovative qualities. Hoefler was one of the first writers to address the Northern Californian technology industry as a distinct community.

"[Hoefler] pioneered the coverage of Silicon Valley as a distinct community," writes Malone in his book "The Big Score."

"When we think of Silicon Valley as a collection of characters and eccentrics, he's the one who put that whole idea in our minds."

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