TL;DR
- Nano Banana was a last-minute codename cooked up at 2:30 AM for the Gemini image model going live on LMArena.
- The name comes from a Google Product Manager’s personal nicknames, and the internet loved it.
- The branding stuck, went viral, and now lives on as Nano Banana Pro.
If you’ve heard of or used AI image generators, you’ve definitely come across Google’s Nano Banana. Even if you’re not into using AI to create images, you’ve probably seen Nano Banana’s work all over social media. The image model is freakishly good at editing and generating images, and we’re sure that, like us, you’ve always wondered what made Google name it Nano Banana. Now, we finally have the full answer, and the story behind the delightfully silly name.
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According to an official blog from Google DeepMind, Nano Banana was born out of a late-night scramble. In July last year, the team was rushing to submit the model to LMArena, a public site where anonymous AI models are tested and voted on by users. The tech name was already locked in: Gemini 2.5 Flash Image. What they didn’t have was a public-facing codename.
At around 2:30 AM, Product Manager Naina Raisinghani was pinged with an urgent request to come up with something, anything, and fast. She came up with “Nano Banana.” Completely nonsensical, and instantly approved.
The name is actually a mash-up of her own nicknames. Some friends call her “Naina Banana,” others call her “Nano” (she’s short and loves computers), and the model itself was a Flash variant. Put it all together and the result… Nano Banana 🍌.
The model quietly appeared on LMArena in early August, where users were blown away by its editing abilities, and when they noticed the name, the internet went bananas. The combo of serious AI power and a goofy codename helped make the model viral, and pushed Nano Banana to the top of the image-editing rankings worldwide.
Google says another big reason for its success was accessibility. The model launched globally on day one, and even after launch, the nickname refused to die. Google decided to commit to it fully, with the yellow run buttons in AI Studio, banana emojis in the Gemini app, limited-edition banana swag, and the works. And now that Gemini 3 Pro Image is here, it’s getting the same treatment with a new name: Nano Banana Pro.
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