I guess Perl should be spelled in all caps, PERL like FORTRAN, they are both acronyms
From whats the difference between "perl" and "Perl":
perl is not an acronym
Though there are several backronyms in use, please note that
Larry originally chose the name "Perl" -- after going through
every single word in the dictionary! -- arbitrarily for its positive
connotations. Actually, he originally chose "Pearl", but
that name was already taken.
From the draft Oxford
English Dictionary entry cited on
history.perl.org:
Perl Brit.
Perl, perl, irreg. PERL
Computing.
perl n. ,
arbitrarily chosen for its positive connotations, with omission of
-a- to differentiate it from an existing programming language called
Pearl. Coined by Larry Wall in the summer of 1987; the program was
publicly released on 18 December of that year. Acronymic expansions of
the name (such as Practical Extraction and Report Language and
Pathologically Eclectic Rubbish Lister), though found in the earliest
documention for the language, were formed after the name had been
chosen. Coinage details confirmed by personal communication from L.
Wall, May 2000. A high-level interpreted programming language widely
used for a variety of tasks and especially for applications running
on the World Wide Web. The form Perl is preferred for the language
itself; perl is used for the interpreter for the Perl language.