Back in 2021, friend and former colleague Parker Ortolani predicted Apple would name macOS 12 Monterey which Apple indeed did. Parker had discovered a number of trademarked names for macOS that hadn’t been used and used some sharp sleuthing to narrow things down.
Related: When will macOS 14 come out?Keeping track of what’s left on the list, Parker recently noted that there are 15 macOS trademarked names that haven’t been used.
There’s always the chance Apple could use something besides one of these, but notably, for the last decade, Apple has always picked from this list:
there are 15 names of places in California Apple trademarked but never used, to date every name they have used was one of those trademarks
UNUSED:
Diablo
Condor
Tiburon
Farallon
Miramar
Rincon
Pacific
Redwood
Shasta
Grizzly
Skyline
Redtail
Sonoma
Sequoia
Mammoth
As I previously shared, since we haven’t heard hardly anything about what upgrades may come with macOS 14, it may be focused on minor features and refinements. If that’s true, it may offer some clues as to which of the names Apple may avoid and which may be more likely.
Less likely macOS 14 names
Mammoth, Sequoia, Redwood, Condor, Grizzly, and Diablo all come to mind as a poor fit if macOS 14 is a modest release given their meanings or associations with grandness, largeness, or… the devil, haha.
More likely macOS 14 names
Meanwhile, these nine names have more neutral or relaxed meanings or associations that could work well with a modest release:
Farallon – meaning headland, outcrop, or rocky peak Miramar – look at the sea Rincon – corner Pacific – peaceful in character Shasta – teacher Skyline – outline of land/buildings Redtail – often related to the redtail hawk Sonoma – valley of the moon Tiburon – sharkMiramar, Shasta, and Sonoma stand out to me as nice choices to follow macOS Ventura for a low-key update.