Who Is Naina Raysinghani? Google’s AI Model “Nano Banana” Is Named After Her

Google’s popular AI model Nano Banana has a surprisingly personal origin: it is named after a nickname of Naina Raysinghani, a Pakistani-born senior product manager at Google. The quirky name, which might seem odd at first, was chosen spontaneously in the middle of the night and quickly approved by the company.

How “Nano Banana” Got Its Name

In July 2024, Google needed to submit its image model to the public platform LMArena. Technically, the model was called Gemini 2.5 Flash Image, but the team wanted a catchy, memorable brand name. At 2:30 a.m., Naina Raysinghani was suddenly asked to suggest a name. Drawing from her personal nicknames, she proposed Nano Banana.

The name is a blend of the nicknames her friends call her: some say “Naina Banana”, while others call her “Nano” due to her petite stature and love for computers. Combining these playful nicknames led to the creative and fun name Nano Banana—which Google immediately embraced.

Who Is Naina Raysinghani?

Naina Raysinghani is a senior product manager at Google and a Pakistani native from Karachi. She completed her Master’s in Computer Science from the University of Pennsylvania and has built a remarkable career in the tech industry. As the driving force behind Nano Banana, she played a key role in shaping one of Google’s most talked-about AI models.

From Nano Banana to Nano Banana Pro

After the release of Gemini 3 Pro Image, Google proudly branded the upgraded model as Nano Banana Pro. The AI model has become widely popular for its powerful image-editing capabilities, demonstrating that even fun, unconventional names can make a serious impact in technology.

This story highlights that even groundbreaking AI innovations can have quirky, personal, and surprisingly human stories behind their names—sometimes decided at 2:30 a.m., inspired by a simple nickname.