diff --git a/HISTORY b/HISTORY
index 60523b8..172e137 100644
--- a/HISTORY
+++ b/HISTORY
@@ -13,6 +13,7 @@ Version 0.0.6
 * Pass the -e flag to exit urchin if any single test fails.
 * Remove the undocumented, experimental -x flag now that shall exists.
 * Display version number with the -v flag.
+* Document why Urchin is called "Urchin"
 
 These changes are made somewhat separately in the branches "exit-on-fail",
 "remove-urchin-x", "tap", and "update-readme". They are rebased into one
diff --git a/readme.md b/readme.md
index e4a9496..722c6e5 100644
--- a/readme.md
+++ b/readme.md
@@ -8,6 +8,10 @@ Urchin is a file-based test harness, normally used for testing shell programs.
 It is written in portable shell and should thus work on GNU/Linux, BSD
 (including Mac OS X), and other Unix-like platforms.
 
+Urchin is called "Urchin" because
+[sea urchins](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sea_urchin)
+have shells called "tests".
+
 ## Try it out
 Urchin's tests are written in Urchin, so you can run them to see what Urchin
 is like. Clone the repository