Etymology

According to Stroustrup: "the name signifies the evolutionary nature of the changes from C".^[14] This name is credited to Rick Mascitti (mid-1983)^[10] and was first used in December 1983. When Mascitti was questioned informally in 1992 about the naming, he indicated that it was given in a tongue-in-cheek spirit. The name comes from C's "++" operator (which increments the value of a variable) and a common naming convention of using "+" to indicate an enhanced computer program.
During C++'s development period, the language had been referred to as "new C" and "C with Classes"^[10][15] before acquiring its final name.