Keiju: That's right, did you hae an idea for what you're going to call the language?
Matz: A subsidiary of Hitachi was doing advertisements.
Matz: Hmm -- as long as it is similar enough to "shell". How about Tish?
Matz: But I'd kinda like something a bit cooler
Keiju: Tish is toilet paper in English?
Matz: You're thinking of "tissue".
Keiju: What does Tish mean then?
Matz: It doesn't mean anything.
Matz: There is no word "tish" anywhere.
Keiju: What is it then?  Some sort of abbreviation thingy?
Matz: It has absolutely no meaning, it's just supposed to sound good.
Keiju: I dunno...
Matz: We'll invest it with meaning later [through use].
Keiju: I suppose you could do that.
Matz: I though of one earlier for a language I wrote which never saw the light of day: Pit.
Matz: It means "pit."
Keiju: Dude, that's awful.
Matz: I think I had some sort of strategy at the time... whoops, forgot it.
Keiju: Call it "ruby."
Keiyu; It should be a gemstone.
Matz: Ruby as in "to place pronunciation guides over characters in Japanese" ruby?
Matz: Why a gemstone?
Matz: Is it Mitsubishi's influence?  [Editor's note: Mitsubishi's corporate logos involve diamon motifs.]
Keiju: Perl.
Matz: Ah, gotcha.
Matz: But shouldn't we make it "rubie" then?  [A gemstone with a spelling mistake in it, like perl.]
Keiju: But "perl" is related to the shell.
Matz: Whoa, never knew that.
Matz: No, I never *realized* that.
Keiju: That might have been intentional.  Spiffy huh.
Matz: Yeah.
Keiju: Pearls come from what shellfish again?
Matz: Any of them can make a pearl.
Keiju: Really?
Keiju: That's how it is?
Matz: The pretty ones are from *akoyagu*.
Keiju: Yeah, those.
Keiju: That's why they call them "pearl oysters" in English.
Matz: Oysters can make pearls, too.
Keiju: What the heck did you just write?  [Translation note: Matz used a traditional way to write "oyster."  I couldn't read it either.]
Matz: Oy ster.
Matz: But akoyagu are "pearl oysters."  We can't use that!
Keiju: How about "oyster"?
Matz: "ruby" sounds better.
Matz: I have a feeling I've seen a "coral" before.
Matz: That's coral like coral coral.
Keiju: Yeah, I have a feeling I've heard of a techy coral, too.
Matz: There was some software -- Coral Draw or something.
Keiju: Bisque.
Keiju: Coral sounds nice.
Matz: Bisque sounds nice but doesn't exactly flow.
Matz: I really think there was a Coral.
Keiju: Yeah...
Keiju: Wasn't it an OS?
Matz: Really?  Too bad, sounded nice.
Keiju: Could you check the yellow book for me?  [Translation note: He's referring to a particular reference book, I think.]
Matz: There was Chorus and Clouds but no Coral.
Kejyu: Geez you're fast.
Matz: Nah, it wasn't written in the Nikkei reference book either.
Keiju: Hmm...
Keiju: Well, if we can't find anything by that name, how about "coral"?
Matz: Is it alright if we don't check for things other than OSes?
Keiju: Hopefully it wouldn't be a language name.
Matz: So, OSes and languages.
Keiju: A company name would be a bad idea.
Keiju: Or a trademark.
Matz: How about we ask the editors to figure that out?
Keiju: Whether there is or isn't a name conflict?
Matz: Let's just pick a codename.
Matz: Temporarily, just for the project.
Keiju: Alright.
Matz: What did you like most of the above?
Keiju: I kinda like coral.
Matz: I kinda like ruby as a codename.
Keiju: Meh, ruby is alright, too.
Matz: Yeah, but I like coral, too...
Matz: Drats.

Mr. Matsumoto [n.b. the email is written from the perspective of Keiju.  He is addressing Matz consistent with the norms of Japanese polite society.]
quoted the above chat in an email:

>> item: Do we make the codename ruby or coral?
>> coral sounds worse than perl (probably) so let's drop it.
>> I think ruby is my birthstone...

So I said "Yeah, let's make it Ruby."

And that's how we picked Ruby.