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The Origin of Neural Network Libraries’ Repository Name “NNabla”

Friday, October 26, 2018

News

Posted by Yoshiyuki Kobayashi

We would like to introduce the origin of the name “NNabla,” which is Neural Network Libraries’ repository name on GitHub and Python package name.

First, it’s a combination of NN, an acronym for Neural Network, and ∇(nabla), a mathematical symbol for gradients that are frequently used in deep learning.

We can also reach the name “NNabla” by performing a series of steps resembling the forward and backward computations, as in optimization of neural networks, on the name “Neural Network Libraries” with 3 characters from forward and backward respectively (See the figure below).

We also want the users to be reminded intuitively that they are working with neural networks (nn), by importing nnabla with “import nnabla as nn” on Python.