# Why did Gödel name his constructible universe $L$?

It seems like Gödel didn't use the letter $L$ for his model before his book "The Consistency of the Axiom of Choice and of the Generalized Continuum-Hypothesis with the Axioms of Set Theory", which is probably the first place it got used.

Do anyone of you know why he used the letter $L$? It does seem like a bit ad hoc in the book, where he names some functions $J_i$, then some other functions $K_i$ and then ends up defining $L$. But why $J_i$ then?

(I'm sorry if this is not suited for MO)

• the sequence $J,K,L,\ldots$ seems quite natural to me, I would not attach any meaning to it – Carlo Beenakker Jul 22 '16 at 6:00
• A lot of things are ad hoc, and they become standard. – Asaf Karagila Jul 22 '16 at 7:54

I heard from Kai Hauser that the letter $L$ comes from "law", and it is because the model is constructed using some laws.
• Only Gödel was Austrian and his work in german. The german word for law is "Gesetz" so that by your logic $L$ should have been named $G$. – Johannes Hahn Jul 22 '16 at 9:58