History of ZAT
ZAT is a name I came up with for a company I started in the mid-90s. That company made Java-based authoring tools for building Web applications, so it was only natural that we used a Javanese/Malaysian word for the name of the company. The word “zat” means “that in which a thing’s special potency lies”. Interestingly, zat also has meanings in several other languages, including Punjabi, Slovak, and (a rather funny meaning in) Dutch.
We had a lot of fun with the name zat, coming up with a number of regretably bad puns.
We eventually sold the company, but I managed to hang onto the name and domain for zat. Only years later, when I decided to build a travel-related site, did I realize that (all along) ZAT was actually an acronym that stood for “Z to A Travel”.
–wm