Every year as WWDC approaches, many Mac fans think about what name Apple will choose for the next version of macOS. The tradition dates back to the early days of Mac OS
Apple has yet to announce what macOS 27 will be called, but macOS Emerald and macOS Big Bear have emerged as two speculative possibilities.
Although it will have a new Siri app and other Apple Intelligence improvements, macOS 27 will reportedly focus on bug fixes and stability improvements. In other words, it will be a refined version of macOS Tahoe. For this reason, macOS Emerald could be an appropriate name for macOS 27, given that Emerald Bay is part of Lake Tahoe. This would be similar to how macOS High Sierra was a refined version of macOS Sierra.
macOS Big Bear is another speculated name, as Woozad Contributor Aaron Perris discovered that the file name of Apple’s WWDC 2026 hashtag graphic on X mentions “Project Big Bear.” macOS Big Bear would refer to Big Bear Lake in California. However, the file name could obviously have nothing to do with the macOS 27 name.
In 2014, we discovered more than 20 California trademark applications filed by various limited liability companies, which were almost certainly shell companies created by Apple to hide its identity. Over time, some trademarks like Yosemite, Sierra, Mojave, Monterey, Mojave, Ventura, Sonoma, and Sequoia have indeed been used as macOS names, while trademark applications for other names have been abandoned.
Apple has always used some of the names whose trademark registrations were abandoned as macOS names, such as Big Sur in 2020. So it’s still possible that macOS 27 will use one of the names that Apple registered to protect many years ago.
Here is a list of the remaining words trademarked by Apple:
- California
- Condor
- Diablo
- Farallón
- Grizzly
- Mammoth
- Miramar
- Peaceful
- Red tail
- Sequoia
- Rincon
- Shasta
- Horizon
- Tiburon
Of course, there’s no guarantee that Apple will ever use any of these names. It’s just fun to think about the possibilities every year.
Apple will unveil macOS 27 during its WWDC 2026 keynote on Monday, June 8.
