JavaScript was invented by Brendan Eich in 1995 while he was working at Netscape Communications Corporation on the Netscape Navigator browser.

Quick Scoop

  • Inventor: Brendan Eich, a programmer hired by Netscape to create a scripting language for the browser.
  • When: May 1995, with the first version put together in roughly 10 days.
  • Where: Netscape Communications (the company behind the Netscape Navigator web browser).
  • Original names: First called Mocha, then LiveScript, and finally renamed JavaScript partly to ride on Java’s popularity.
  • Why it was created: To make otherwise static HTML pages more interactive and dynamic for users.

In short: Brendan Eich is the person who invented JavaScript, during his time at Netscape in 1995, to bring interactivity to the early web.

TL;DR: Brendan Eich invented JavaScript in 1995 at Netscape; it started as Mocha/LiveScript and was renamed JavaScript to help popularize it alongside the rising Java ecosystem.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.