About the name Miranda

Miranda is a Latin word meaning "to be wondered at" (from the verb miror, to wonder at or to admire). It has been in use in England and America as a female personal name since the early seventeenth century. Its first use as a girl's name is due to Shakespeare, in The Tempest (1611).

In The Tempest, Miranda is the daughter of the magician, Prospero. She lives on an enchanted island, protected from all the evils of the world (which in this context may stand for side effects and other imperative features).

In Act 5, Scene 1 of the play Miranda makes a speech containing the words (later made famous by Aldous Huxley as the title of his novel about the future): "O Brave New World!"

The idea is that the Miranda language is an introduction to the Brave New World of functional programming.

Because it is a proper name, not an acronym, only the first letter of Miranda is capitalised.

Miranda and the Tempest
John William Waterhouse (1917)

Miranda and the Tempest: thumbnail

Trivia:-
Miranda is also a moon of Uranus, but that has nothing whatever to do with the name of the programming language.

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