But interestingly, the actual name "widget" is much older... In the 1950's, computer systems analysis specialists working on the future application of computers to business processes needed an easy term to describe any standard product, produced by any company for any commercial purpose. The name "widget" was coined, and is still in wide use today in the same circles, but as far as I'm aware it's not known who actually first dreamed the word up, or exactly when.