When the authors of MySQL wanted to use mSQL to connect to some tables using its very fast ISAM routines. However,after some testing they conclude mSQL turned out to be too slow, not fast enough or flexible enough for there needs. They started working on their own solution. This resulted in a new SQL interface to database but with almost the same API interface as mSQL. This API was designed to allow third-party code that was written for use with mSQL to be ported easily for use with MySQL.
They named there new Software as MySQL on co-founder Monty Widenius's daughter name, My.

The name of the MySQL Dolphin (logo) is “Sakila,” which was chosen by the founders of MySQL AB from a huge list of names suggested by users in our “Name the Dolphin” contest.
The winning name was submitted by Ambrose Twebaze, an Open Source software developer from Swaziland, Africa. According to Ambrose, the feminine name Sakila has its roots in SiSwati, the local language of Swaziland. Sakila is also the name of a town in Arusha, Tanzania, near Ambrose's country of origin, Uganda.

As per Wikipedia

• MySQL was first released internally on 23 May 1995
• Windows version released on January 8, 1998 for Windows 95 and NT
• Version 3.23: beta from June 2000, production release January 2001
• Version 4.0: beta from August 2002, production release March 2003 (unions)
• Version 4.1: beta from June 2004, production release October 2004 (R-trees and B-trees, subqueries, prepared statements)
• Version 5.0: beta from March 2005, production release October 2005 (cursors, stored procedures, triggers, views, XA transactions)
• Version 5.1: currently pre-production (since November 2005) (event scheduler, partitioning, plugin API, row-based replication, server log tables)
• Sun Microsystems acquires MySQL AB on 26 February 2008

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