People often ask me why we named our company Tolgee and why there is a mouse in the logo. Here’s the explanation.

When I was originally working on the localization tool for my master’s thesis, I called it Polygloat. I wanted to play with the word “polyglot” to emphasize that the tool helps your app speak many languages, and “goat” because I wanted some animal in the name. Sadly, Polygoat was already taken by another language software tool.

However, people thought Polygloat didn’t sound very nice, so we started looking for another name. We came up with more possibilities, including animal-themed ones like my favorite, “Voca Bull Larry,” or “Langustee,” but none of them were cool enough for us.

Then I decided to translate the word “translation” into as many languages as I could. In Estonian, it is “tõlge.” So we just removed the “~,” added another “e,” and that’s how we settled on the product and company name.

One of the biggest selling points of Tolgee is its native JS integrations, which let you click a string with a mouse directly in the app and translate it in place. Click with a MOUSE.

And that’s how the mouse became the logo and mascot of Tolgee. See the nineties vibe?

The original logo, created by Marketa, had no tail. Which was later fixed by Zuzka to the current with-tail form.