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According to Thomas Bushnell, the primary architect of the Hurd:

> *Hurd*, as an acronym, stands for *Hird of [[Unix]]-Replacing Daemons*.
> *Hird*, in turn, stands for *Hurd of Interfaces Representing Depth*.

> We have here, to my knowledge, the first software to be named by a pair of
> mutually recursive acronyms.

[Quoting](http://mail.gnu.org/archive/html/help-hurd/2002-10/msg00099.html)
him further:

> The name *Hurd* was invented by me, as an alternate spelling for the English
> word *herd*.  *Hird* is just another alternate spelling for the same word.
> By the [[normal_rules_of_English_orthography|gramatically_speaking]], they
> all have the same pronunciations.


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In other contexts:

One contributor from Norway described two other uses of Hird.

  * "the kings men", a name given to the men accompanying the Norwegian kings at about 
    year 1000 and on.
    
    This was later coined by V. Quisling when he formed a party with
    nationalistic traits to denote a set of helpers promoting his agenda of
    national and Nordic ideas.

  * a symbol of collaboration with the (German) enemy used in World War II.