What makes "FOCAL" FOCAL?

[rprosperi]

The huge popularity of the 41 spawned all kinds of unprecedented activities. among these, HP's Calculator newsletter "Key Notes" held a 'name the 41 programming language contest'. After reviewing many entries, the winner, FOCAL (for Forty One CAlculator Language) was selected, however after picking the winner but before publishing it, HP discovered that FOCAL was a trademarked name belonging to DEC, for a BASIC-like programming language, and ultimately decided to not announce and adopt the name. At about this same time, HP discontinued Key Notes, so there was no convenient way to notify the readers of the discovery and decision, so it was simply never acknowledged.

But users had informally learned the name of the winner (likely from HP folks mentioning it before it was squashed) and started using it.

As for if it's unique features justify having a name when predecessors did not, who can say if that's reasonable and 'fair'? The ever-increasing numbers of non-engineering professionals writing and using 41 programs wanted a name easier to use than 'forty one programming language' and there were a huge number of questions sent to Key Notes and PPC asking what name they should use, which led to the contest.