Did Apple Just Accidentally Leak the Official Name for macOS 27?
Big Bear Lake [John Amarillas]
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Although Apple’s mobile operating systems have never had names (at least not any that the company shares with the public), it’s been a longstanding tradition to dub its venerable Mac software with a moniker that’s usually a combination of punchy and whimsical.
For the first decade or so, Apple went with cat names, starting with Cheetah in 2001, and continuing through Puma, Jaguar, Panther, Tiger, Leopard, Snow Leopard, and Lion before capping the feline family off with OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion.
It had already been clear by then that Apple had been grasping for names, so it wasn’t too much of a surprise when it switched gears in 2013 with the announcement of OS X Mavericks, named after a California landmark instead of a cat.
This gave Apple considerably more options to work with, although we did end up with some repetition and confusion as it moved through Yosemite, El Capitan, Sierra and High Sierra, followed by Mojave, Catalina, Big Sur, Monterey, Ventura, Sonoma, and Sequoia. While those last two were obviously very distinct landmarks, Apple’s choice to go with two “S” names in sequence also mixed things up a bit; some of us still have a hard time remembering which came first — the wine or the wood.
In the midst of all that, Apple also rebranded and renumbered its Mac operating system multiple times: first moving from OS X to macOS with Sierra in 2016, and then finally making its first full version number jump in almost 20 years when macOS Big Sur finally moved the dial to 11.
Then came macOS 26 Tahoe, last year’s massive numeric jump whereby Apple aligned all of its operating systems into the same numbering system, using a car-style model year as the basis. It was honestly a breath of fresh air to move from the mishmash of macOS 15, iOS 18, watchOS 11, and visionOS 2 to a unified world where everything ended in the same number.
That makes it a given that the next big Mac software update will be macOS 27, which Apple is expected to show off at next week’s Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) alongside iOS 27, iPadOS 27, and the rest of the gang. However, what we don’t know for sure yet is the clever name that Apple plans to give it — and it’s rather unusual that we haven’t even heard the usual rounds of speculation.
Usually, pundits are digging through Apple trademark databases and making guesses by now, but things have been relatively quiet until this week, when the name in Apple’s “hashmoji” URL potentially gave it away.
macOS 27 ‘Big Bear’?
While the leaked name could make you ponder if Apple is returning to animal names, in this case it’s still another California landmark: specifically Big Bear Lake, located in the San Bernardino Mountains in Southern California.
This means the name would not only stick with Apple’s current trend, but it would also be an apt successor to macOS 26 Tahoe, which bears the name of one of California’s most famous lakes.
Apple would likely omit the word “Lake,” as it did with Tahoe, making the new release simply macOS 27 Big Bear. However, that’s far from a certainty just yet.
For one thing, the hashmoji file refers to it as “Project Big Bear,” which suggests it may simply be an internal codename that may not even be related to macOS, especially since it’s part of a generic hashmoji for the Apple logo. Even if it is the internal name of macOS 27, Apple could still choose a different name for the customer-facing release, which almost certainly won’t use the word “Project” on the front. Apple typically has internal codenames for all of its software releases — iOS 27 is reportedly called “Rave” inside the walls of Apple Park — but it never shares these with the public.
Still, considering the connection with Tahoe, Big Bear seems as likely a name to grace macOS 27 as any. However, there are also plenty of other lakes in California the company could use, and we wouldn’t put it past Apple to toss out a red herring just to throw people off. It certainly wouldn’t be the first time.
Fortunately, we won’t have to wait much longer to find out. Apple’s WWDC keynote is only five days away, kicking off on Monday, June 8 at 10 a.m. PT (1 p.m. ET), where we imagine we’ll see far more interesting things coming in macOS 27 than merely the name.
[The information provided in this article has NOT been confirmed by Apple and may be speculation. Provided details may not be factual. Take all rumors, tech or otherwise, with a grain of salt.]
