COBOL was designed in 1959 by the Conference on Data Systems Languages, commonly abbreviated as CODASYL.
The language was created for business, finance, and administrative data processing, where readable record-based programs and decimal arithmetic were especially useful. Its name comes from “common business-oriented language.”
Grace Hopper’s earlier FLOW-MATIC language strongly influenced COBOL, particularly its English-like syntax. A committee led by CODASYL developed the initial specifications, with support from the United States Department of Defense.
COBOL is sometimes mistaken for a language designed by one individual, but it was a committee-developed standard. It also remains distinct from FORTRAN, which was created mainly for scientific and engineering calculations. COBOL’s long use in banking, government, payroll, and insurance systems helped make it one of computing’s most enduring programming languages.