What do you call these?

[JJ 3000]

[BC_Programmer]

Either Flash Drive or USB key. Although thinking about it "USB key" makes no sense at all.

[rthompson80819]

a plug-and-play portable storage device that uses flash memory and is lightweight enough to attach to a key chain

Not really, but somebody had to vote for it.

[Salmon Trout]

I generally call them "pen drives" in conversation, especially with non-tech people. I might say "flash drive" to a person who will know what that means. I most emphatically do not call them "memory sticks", because this is a memory stick:

[JJ 3000]

Although thinking about it "USB key" makes no sense at all.

I think the term USB key is a reference to the fact that a lot of people carry them on their key chains. When they go through their keys they can say, "thats the USB key." That's my intuitive explanation for the term; I have no idea what's really behind that.

I started this poll because I hear these devices called a variety of names. I just picked the first few that I could think of. I could've included more if I'd thought about it a minute longer. Pen drive springs to mind now as yet another candidate.

 A couple of weeks ago I had someone ask me if I had a jump drive and I thought, what's a jump drive? Surely, she can't be asking me if I have a one of these.

So, why do we have so many different names for these things? Why can't we just pick one word and stick to it? It's confusing if you ask me.

[JJ 3000]

I generally call them "pen drives" in conversation, especially with non-tech people. I might say "flash drive" to a person who will know what that means. I most emphatically do not call them "memory sticks", because this is a memory stick:

I almost always call them flash drives unless the person I'm talking to has already referred to them as something else. Like with the girl who called it a jump drive; once I figured out what she was talking about, I called them jump drives throughout the rest of the conversation to avoid confusing her with a new term.

[Salmon Trout]

 A couple of weeks ago I had someone ask me if I had a jump drive and I thought, what's a jump drive? Surely, she can't be asking me if I have a one of these.

So, why do we have so many different names for these things? Why can't we just pick one word and stick to it? It's confusing if you ask me.

Some people just use the first term they ever heard for a thing. "Jump Drive" is a Lexar brand name. My very elderly aunt (born around 1870) called all cameras "Kodaks".

[Carbon Dudeoxide]

I have a Jump Drive. It requires a car to use. Enough said.


I call it a Flash Drive.

[kpac]

Memory stick

[Calum]

I used to call it a memory stick but now no one I speak to uses that term, so I don't either.
I do phone support so I hear it called all sorts of weird things, but at work (speaking with colleagues) I use the terms flash drive, pen, pen drive, USB pen, USB drive, USB stick - whatever comes to mind first.

[rthompson80819]

The first time I heard it referred to as a pen drive I knew it was some type of USB flash drive, but with a form factor that looked like a pen,rather than the standard flash drive, and I hadn't seen one of those yet.  I guess the name came from people put in a shirt pocket with their pens.

[Helpmeh]

I've always called it either a (USB) flash drive or just a USB if I'm lazy.

[JJ 3000]

My very elderly aunt (born around 1870) called all cameras "Kodaks".

I have an aunt that calls CDs and DVDs "tapes". She was born in the 50's, so I know that she would've had to have encountered records before tapes.

[patio]

I'm suprised she doesn't call them 78's......

[Salmon Trout]

Thinking back on it, she was my great-aunt, that is, my mother's aunt. If she was surprised or alarmed she used to shout "Jumping Jesus!"