The Emmys were almost called the Ikes

From “Ike” to “Emmy”

The name began with a piece of television equipment, not a person. Early cameras used an iconoscope, a tube that converted the light falling on its image surface into an electrical signal that could be transmitted as a picture. “Ike,” a shortened form of the tube’s name, was considered for the award.

The name then shifted to “Immy,” associated with the image orthicon, another camera tube used to turn scenes into television signals. “Emmy” was a smoother, more familiar-sounding version of that technical nickname—and it suited the award’s statuette better than a name that sounded like equipment.

A technical word made public

The change reflects how closely early television depended on camera tubes: before compact solid-state sensors, these devices were central to capturing broadcast images. A name drawn from that machinery gave the award a link to the technology behind the industry, while “Emmy” made the connection easier to say and remember.

The result is a small piece of engineering history embedded in a familiar name: the Emmys began with a word borrowed from the equipment that made television pictures possible.