Xamarin comes from the tamarin monkey

“We’ve used monkey themes for many years, Ximian was a play on simian. Mono is Spanish for monkey. Xamarin comes from the tamarin monkey. And we kept the X, though to tell you the truth, I can’t remember why we used it in the first place.”

In one of the first interview as Xamarin CEO, Miguel de Icaza also talks about the history of Mono, Ximian and Novell.

After three years we can say: well done, Miguel.

http://adtmag.com/blogs/watersworks/2011/05/interview-with-miguel-de-icaza.aspx