How Nano Banana got its name

What’s Happening

Let’s talk about We’re peeling back the origin story of Nano Banana, one of Google DeepMind’s most popular models.

Breadcrumb Products & Platforms Products Gemini How Nano Banana got its name Jan 15, 2026 · x. Com Facebook LinkedIn Mail Copy link We’re peeling back the origin story of Nano Banana. (plot twist fr)

Ari Marini Keyword Contributor x.

The Details

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Why This Matters

But how did one of Google DeepMind’s most popular models end up with the name Nano Banana ? The answer lies in a late-night scramble, a pair of personal nicknames and embracing the unexpected. With Nano Banana Pro, the newest version of our latest image generation and editing model, you can prompt Gemini with text, images or a combination of both to create, edit and iterate on even better visuals than before — including with accurate, legible text.

As AI capabilities expand, we’re seeing more announcements like this reshape the industry.

Key Takeaways

• Back in late July, the team was hard at work preparing the first version of the model for launch, squashing pesky bugs and running evaluations.
• They’d already locked in the technical name — Gemini 2.
• 5 Flash Image — but one critical detail was still missing: a public codename for LMArena.
• LMArena is a public platform designed to evaluate AI models through anonymous, crowd-sourced pairwise comparisons.

The Bottom Line

Because these models are still being refined, using a codename is crucial. “We pushed the codename conversation until the last minute,” Product Manager Naina Raisinghani says.

Is this a W or an L? You decide.