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Operation cryptonym: Code names from war theatre to Hollywood

Once used for war ops, code names are now a must for every move you make – war or ceasefire, commercial products, and of course, movies.
By Nilima David

What's common between Iron Bridge and True Blue? Well, they are both code names for Maggie Thatcher's funeral next week, an event for which the UK has been preparing since 2006. Once used for war ops, code names are now a must for every move you make - war or ceasefire, commercial products, and of course, movies.

Code names for Obamas: The US Secret Service code for President Barack Obama is Renegade. First lady Michelle is Renaissance, while daughters Malia and Sasha are Radiance and Rosebud. Traditionally, the Secret Service chooses the same letter for the code names of all family members.

Perhaps the most famous Indian code name is Smiling Buddha, that stands for Pokhran-I, 1974. The name was chosen to indicate the 'peaceful' nature of India's nuclear ambitions.

Winston Churchill, who personally named the Normandy invasion, listed the following guideline for code names in a 1943 memo: Do not suggest the character of the operation or disparage it in any way and do not enable some widow or mother to say that her son was killed in an operation called "Bunnyhug" or "Ballyhoo."

Operation Red Dawn was an American military operation conducted on December 13, 2003, in the town of ad-Dawr, Iraq, that led to the capture of Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein. The operation was named after the 1984 film Red Dawn.

Harry Houdini: When he wasn't suspended upside down in a water tank, Harry Houdini, code named HH, moonlighted in espionage. According to a biography released in 2006, both the American Secret Service and Scotland Yard hired Houdini to sneak into police stations across Europe and Russia and gather information for them.

Noor Inayat Khan: Code name: Madeleine

The first female radio operator to infi ltrate occupied Paris during World War II, she was fi rst tortured and then shot dead by the Nazis who knew her as Madeleine, British spy. Her real name was Noor Inayat Khan. She was posthumously awarded the Croix de Guerre and the George Cross.

Osama Bin Laden Code name: Geronimo

The secret operation to capture America's most-wanted terrorist, Osama Bin Laden, was code named Geronimo. It wasn't the most politically-correct or sensitive choice: Geronimo was the legendary chief of the Chiricahua Apaches who eluded capture for three decades. The Native Americans were outraged at the idea of likening Bin Laden and his capture to their hero's struggle against Mexican and American troops in the 19th century.

Code name: Hollywood

Production houses insist on absurd code names for highly-anticipated, mega-budget movies. Autumn Frost is the production code name for what everyone knows is the this year's Superman re-boot — actually titled Man of Steel. The working title of Casablanca (1942) was the less poetic Everybody Comes to Rick's. The most famous code name of all? Blue Harvest, used by George Lucas during the fi lming of Star Wars: Episode VI — Return of the Jedi (1983). Recently, Iron Man III was being filmed with the code name Caged Heat.

Apple swings between musical terms and big cats for its OS and OS X products. To start with, Mac OS code names were musical terms such as Harmony, Tempo and Allegro; from Mac OS X, the focus switched to big cats, Puma, Jaguar, Snow Leopard.

Fun fact: System 7.5 was code named Mozart, but also Capone. Why Capone? Because like the famous gangster, it was meant to rule over Chicago (Windows 95).

When it comes to Windows, Microsoft seems largely obsessed with location names, with a few exceptions. So you have Chicago - Windows 95, Memphis - Windows 98, Daytona -Windows XP, Vienna - Windows 7.

Fun fact: Windows 7 took its code name from Vienna, which in 2007 and 2008 was ranked first globally for its culture of innovation in the Innovation Cities Index.
Parks and furry foxes inspire Mozilla as is evident in different Firefox versions. "A park is a vital ecosystem for collaboration, recreation, conservation and commerce," says a 2009 Mozilla blog. Phoenix - Firefox 1.0, Bon Echo - Firefox 2, Gran Paradiso - Firefox 3, Namoroka - Firefox 3.6.

Fun fact: Mozilla named the 3.6 Firefox version after Namoroka, a park in Madagascar which is home to eight species of lemurs and helped raise money to protect these animals.

Software companies love code names: Someone at Google has a sweet tooth. All Android code names are pastries or desserts and are named alphabetically. So you have Cupcake, Donut, Eclair, FroYo, Gingerbread, Ice Cream Sandwich and Jelly Bean.

Fun fact: Google has built statues of various Android desserts. They sit on the lawn at the company's headquarters in Mountain View, California.

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