I don’t know how the title of The Matrix was chosen, but it’s an interesting title. I mean, I know it’s named after the matrix in the movie, but I don’t know how that name was chosen. Most people know the term matrix from math, where it refers to a 2D array of numbers. In this context, the name “matrix” for the titular simulation is just kind of a sci-fi sounding word. This is done a lot in sci-fi, where a term from math, computer science, or physics is used to sound technological or futuristic, even though the sci-fi concept is unrelated to the real-world concept. This is related to the sci-fi trope of technobabble, wherein vague, technical-sounding words are used to describe or explain something.

This is how I always thought of The Matrix. It’s a cool sounding name, but it doesn’t really have anything to do with the plot or how the simulation works in-universe. Despite knowing the root of the word matrix, I never made a connection to it until now. Matrix is Latin for “womb”. How mathematical matrices got their name is a funny story: matrices were initially studied not on their own but as the source of what we now call the determinant. Mathematician James Sylvester, in one work, described the rectangular array of numbers as (paraphrasing) “a sort of matrix from which we get [the determinant]”. Others, not understanding this context or simply not caring, started referring to rectangular arrays of numbers in general as “matrices”. Now the mathematical meaning is completely disconnected from the original meaning, as the determinant is regarded more like a property of a matrix and matrices themselves are the subject of study.

The matrix in The Matrix has a lot of parallels to a womb. First of all, the pods that humans are kept in are highly womb-like. This includes amniotic-like fluid and multiple umbilical-like cables. Additionally, this frames leaving the matrix or “waking up” as a kind of birth. The scene in which Neo leaves his pod even has him exiting through a kind of canal. This connection seems very obvious in hindsight, so I’m surprised I never thought of it before.