The name of everything we come in contact with has an origin, and sometimes it’s quite surprising to discover how certain names began. Take a name like gooseberry, for example. It has nothing to do with geese! It was originally gorseberry. In Saxon, gorst from which “gorse” is derived, meant “rough.” And this berry has this name because it grows on a rough or thorny shrub! Raspberry comes from the German verb raspen, which means to rub together or rub as with a file. The marks on this berry were thought to resemble a file.