Apple reportedly naming macOS 26 after California’s Lake Tahoe to signify redesign

According to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, the name for the next version of macOS is set to be ‘Tahoe’, named after Lake Tahoe in California. This name will accompany Apple’s first macOS redesign since Big Sur in 2020.

Gurman describes macOS 26 as the third significant macOS redesign since Apple adopted California names, and Apple wanted to find a special name to accompany it:

I’m told that the company has homed in on Lake Tahoe as its next moniker, making it macOS Tahoe. It’s a famous resort area and a vacation destination (and second-home site) for many Apple employees. 

Apple is set to redesign all of its operating systems next week at WWDC. As part of this redesign, Apple is also rebranding all of its operating systems to be based on the year. It’s similar to automakers, and since iOS ’26’ isn’t launching until near the end of 2025, its branded as ’26’.

That means that instead of seeing iOS 19, iPadOS 19, tvOS 19, macOS 15, watchOS 12, and visionOS 2 – they’ll all be the number 26.

Gurman also adds that Lake Tahoe is ‘known to show the reflection of the sky and surrounding mountains’, and says that’s similar to the ‘striking visuals’ of Apple’s redesigned interfaces for this years software releases.

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