The official standard name for the programming language commonly called JavaScript is ECMAScript.
JavaScript was created by Brendan Eich at Netscape in 1995 and was initially developed under the name Mocha, later becoming LiveScript and then JavaScript. To create a vendor-neutral specification, Netscape submitted the language to Ecma International for standardization.
The first ECMAScript specification was published as ECMA-262 in 1997. “JavaScript” remains the familiar language name used by browsers, developers, and documentation, while “ECMAScript” identifies the standardized language specification. The two names are closely related, but they are not interchangeable in every technical context.
ECMAScript defines core language features such as syntax, objects, functions, and control flow. Web browsers add host APIs, including the DOM and Web Storage, which are not themselves part of the ECMAScript standard. Modern JavaScript implementations generally aim to support successive ECMAScript editions.