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The first computer mouse was given its name by the device’s inventor, Douglas Engelbart.

Because, for some reason, the “X-Y Position Indicator for a Display System” just didn’t catch on.

The first users hated the clumsiness of the name and quickly dubbed them “turtles,” which eventually became “rodent,” which morphed into the cuter-sounding “mouse.”

This name was just right for the shape and size of the X-Y Position Indicator, and it stuck.

These days, mice are sophisticated devices that have many buttons. Some are cordless, and more recently, have no balls for tracking. Instead, a low power laser is used to track the surface it sits on.

The advantage? We no longer have to remove the ball from the poor mouse and clean the rollers so our mouse works like new again.