Breaking Down Palantir Codenames

And some of the logic behind

“Danube”. That is the codename Palantir seems to use for some internal demos. Even if the link doesn’t seem to work, it sure did when the company held FoundryConUS this year, and thanks to the amazing CodeStrap we all could see MetaConstellation in use. Impressive functions from the inside, and thanks to this hint we could all take notice of the codename.

And as Danube, many other codenames are hiding great insights (I mean… There’s even an “Insights” codename). And let me speculate Palantir has lots of internal stuff and other company names hidden behind some great codenames. Rossocorsa is another example, which of course means “Rosso Corsa” in Italian, and that is basically the Italian Ferrari red… So one could think Rossocorsa is codename for Scuderia Ferrari. Maybe? Who knows!

Of course, this way of thinking opens the door to other theories, like for example “IMPULSE BLUE”. If you search the meaning on the internet you’ll encounter yourself with the Japanese Air Force, and sure enough, that’d be a mere coincidence and nothing more would be in order… Right? Well, the link’s IP address happens to be located in Japan, and that’d be more than a coincidence…

And then we have some unrelated words in play, like the PWC branch that uses the word “Album” as a codename. Why is PWC using this kind of word? Well, some things are meant to never be understood, I think…

On the other hand some obvious ones are present, like BYND. And that begs the question: “Is Beyond Meat using Palantir?”. Well, yes. But the interesting thing is a different aspect in this whole conversation. Because the link has been around for 2-3 months, but the login email has only been accepted for weeks… That’s a big deal for old links, since it opens the question on relevance and utility for old codenames that have already been tried... This is good.

What I’ve noticed is Palantir likes to use 6 letter words, like AUREUS, AURIGA, ASPECT, AKIMBO… And that’s just some beginning with the letter A. Many more follow, and although interesting, the vast majority are using a 5-6-7 letter arrangement. That’s quite fun, but I like to think it’s an easy way to understand codenames and at the same time know how to differentiate each from the other.

What I’m trying to say in all this is that Palantir doesn’t select codenames thinking they sound nice (maybe some are) but rather I try to think engineers think of some interesting aspect that might be remotely related to the company / government branch in question.

Of course, the future of Palantir is bright, and I think many more companies are about to be announced. Hundreds of ones are already up there, so it’s only about time…