How Nano Banana got its name

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You already know it for its viral editing power. 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.

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. Users submit a prompt and get responses from two unidentified models. They vote for the better response, and then the platform reveals which models were used.

While LMArena showcases released models, it's also a powerful testing ground. Teams often submit models still in development to gather early performance signals and real-world, human feedback. 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. "So at 2:30 a.m., one of the PMs messaged me saying we needed to submit it, and I said, 'OK, how about something funny like 'Nano Banana'?' And they're like, 'Yeah, sure. That's completely nonsensical.'"

The reason that idea came to Naina? It's a variation of her own nickname. "Some of my friends call me Naina Banana, and others call me Nano because I'm short and I like computers. So I just smushed my two nicknames together," Naina says. "And it fit because it was a Flash model."

The team introduced Nano Banana on LMArena in early August - and the model was ripe for virality. Users were stunned by its powerful editing capabilities, like its ability to maintain a person's likeness and expertly edit multiple images together. Then, they saw the name. And social media went bananas.

"People responded really well. They were so impressed with it, and then they found the name funny, and that kind of grew discourse," Naina says.

After a few weeks of speculation, the team teased Google was behind the Nano Banana model with posts on X.

It was an early sign that they had a hit on their hands. And when the model officially launched, it didn't slip, Nano Banana became the top-rated image editing model in the world. People everywhere found creative ways to use it to try on different looks, remix and restore photos, make specific edits, create custom apps and countless more use cases.

"One reason we were successful is the model was available everywhere from day one - it didn't matter what country you were in, or whether you were a developer or a consumer, you had it on the same day," Naina says. "And then culturally relevant prompts went viral everywhere, like the popular figurine trend, which started in Thailand, or the saree trend in India."

While the technical name was still officially called Gemini 2.5 Flash Image, the Nano Banana brand name stuck. The team ran with it, turning the run button for Nano Banana in AI Studio yellow, adding a banana emoji to the "Create image" chip in the Gemini app and even creating some limited edition banana-themed swag. And now that Gemini 3 Pro Image is here, its brand name also got an upgrade: Nano Banana Pro.

"We leaned into the silliness of it all. We've embraced the banana emoji as one of us. The team is split on the banana puns of it all," Naina says. "But we're glad people find the model appealing."

• Gemini
• AI