Netscape created JavaScript in 1995 for its Netscape Navigator web browser.
Netscape hired Brendan Eich to develop a scripting language for web pages. Eich created the first version in a short development period, and Netscape introduced it in Navigator 2.0. The language was initially called Mocha and was later renamed LiveScript before becoming JavaScript.
JavaScript allowed web pages to respond to user actions and change content without requiring every interaction to be handled by a separate program. That capability helped make browsers more interactive and contributed to the growth of client-side web applications.
Despite its name, JavaScript is not the same language as Java. The name reflected a marketing relationship with Java, which was then widely promoted by Sun Microsystems. The language was later standardized under the name ECMAScript, while JavaScript remained its common public name.