Why is the PHP Logo An Elephant?

The elephant, specifically a blue elephant, is not the official logo of PHP, but it has become an unofficial mascot of the PHP community.

The association of PHP with an elephant came from a toy elephant that was made by Vincent Pontier, a French PHP developer, in 1998. He named this toy ElePHPant, which is a portmanteau of “elephant” and “PHP”. The toy was a plush blue elephant, and it became popular among PHP developers.

The reason behind choosing an elephant was mainly because of the animal’s features. Elephants are known for their memory, which is a nod to PHP’s session handling and memory management capabilities. They are also seen as strong and dependable, much like how PHP aims to be a robust and reliable language for web development.

Over time, the ElePHPant has become a beloved symbol in the PHP community, and you can often see it at developer conferences and other PHP-related events. Different variations of the ElePHPant (in different colors and with different logos) have also been created by various PHP user groups around the world.