How did Minecraft's enderman get its name? Looking back at the iconic mob's history
Minecraft has many iconic mobs, such as the creeper that blows up the moment you notice it. There’s also the villager, with its long nose and characteristic sound. Then there’s the enderman. Imagine seeing a tall, dark figure with glowing eyes walking towards you. What’s worse is that it can teleport as well. While we're all aware of this mob from the End dimension, many don't know how it got its name.
We dive deeper into the history of the enderman in Minecraft. There's an interesting story behind the inspiration behind this mob, and how the game's creator named it.
Enderman in Minecraft
Markus Alexej Persson, also known as Notch, came up with the idea for a creepy mob sometime before July 2011. He shared some images of this mob on his Google+ account, and fans quickly started to pick it up. Note that this is 2011 that we are talking about. Minecraft did not have much to offer back then.
Notch added the staring mechanic to make the enderman creepier and more dangerous. This would make the mob attack players if they looked directly at it and broke eye contact. An enderman could also teleport, which made running away from them more challenging. Interestingly, these mobs had green eyes instead of purple, and they used to emit smoke rather than portal particles.
You might be shocked to know that the enderman had more than 30 tweaks and changes before the finalized version. These changes included visual and behavioral changes. A lot of the players are often confused about the name “enderman.”
How the enderman was named
There is solid proof about the inspiration behind the name of this mob, and it came from a Reddit comment. In a now-deleted post by a deleted user, Notch himself mentions that the word “slender man” is the inspiration for the name. Reacting to the post about the first images of the mob, user u/drodeznop mentioned that it looks like a fictional slender man.
Notch replied by saying that he is officially naming them “enderman” as a reference to this. You can read other replies to the post that show how players were afraid of the mob as most of the users joked that they would be deleting Minecraft.
After 13 years of the addition of the enderman, fans are now waiting for Mojang to update the End dimension. Despite this desolate dimension being in the game for more than a decade, it feels empty and barren. Perhaps the developers can add a biome that compels players to explore this dimension.