Why we named the app Koi
A short note on the thinking behind the name, the symbolism that drew us to it, and a small word play in Japanese that sealed it.
People sometimes ask us why we named a habit app after a fish.
It started with the symbol. In East Asian culture, the koi has carried specific meanings for centuries. Perseverance. Patience. Quiet strength. The willingness to keep going when the current is against you. There is a famous legend, told across China and Japan, about koi swimming up the Yellow River and one of them eventually leaping a waterfall called the Dragon Gate to become a dragon. The story is older than most of the books on the shelf at any habit-app team's office.
When we were thinking about what to name the app, we kept coming back to the question: what is the right symbol for the slow, repeated, mostly-invisible work of changing how you live? Not the finish line, but the work itself. The koi kept appearing. The koi is not the dragon. The koi is the years of swimming that come before the dragon. That felt like the right metaphor for a habit app built around showing up rather than completing.
The small word play
There is a second reason, which we like even more.
In Japanese, koi (鯉) is the carp. But there is another word, also written koi but with different characters (恋), that means love or longing. It is the kind of love that pulls you toward something. A quieter, more enduring kind than passion. The two words are spoken the same way.
The fish and the longing share a name. We thought that was beautiful. The work of building a habit is a kind of longing, after all. You want to become someone you are not yet. You move toward it slowly, not always sure you will get there, but unable to fully stop. The koi swims because it cannot help swimming. The person showing up to journal again, or stretch again, or breathe again, shows up because some part of them is pulled there.
A habit, done with care over years, is one of the most underrated forms of love a person can have for themselves.
The kind of app this leads to
The name shaped the app. Once we had it, certain choices became obvious.
There would be no streaks that punished missed days, because the koi in the legend fail many times and the legend honours the trying. There would be no aggressive notifications, because the koi swims quietly. There would be no shame mechanics, because the koi is not ashamed of being a koi. The koi just swims.
Whatever Koi becomes from here, we want it to keep faith with the symbol. A calm space, a quiet companion, a long slow practice you can return to. The dragons take care of themselves.