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This was called out in the announcement of the company:

We also like that it means alpha-bet (Alpha is investment return above benchmark), which we strive for!

https://googleblog.blogspot.com/2015/08/google-alphabet.html

...Oh hell, I just thought it was because they had such a big portfolio of endeavors.

Now it just comes across as tacky.

I thought it was because Umbrella corp was taken

Yeah, they said that in the original press release.

You could also consider Google as Alphabet's primary, or "alpha" bet, but Google is also investing in a variety of "other bets". The name also provides for cool URLs, like https://abc.xyz.

Serious (and off-topic) question: did Silicon Valley name Hooli XYZ as a nod to that domain name? A whois seems to indicate that the domain was created a year before the second season of the show, when Hooli XYZ made its first appearance.

I'm pretty sure it was just an obvious play on Google X. But googlers are not without a sense of humor.

http://hooli.xyz/

A beta-bet, if you will.

Alternatively they could have named themselves "tautology"