The name joystick is thought to originate with early 20th century French pilot Robert Esnault-Pelterie.

The joystick, which got its name from the control stick used by a pilot to control the ailerons and elevators of an airplane, is a hand-held lever that pivots on one end and transmits its coordinates to a computer. It often has one or more push-buttons, called switches, whose position can also be read by the computer.

Some researchers feel its origins are the result of "the exhilaration felt by an early pilot's journey into the air," (a stick that makes you happy) while others believe it is named for a Missouri pilot and inventor, James Henry Joyce (the Joyce stick).

We do know that the term actually predates World War One and is first recorded from a British source. In a search for its source some etymologists have been led up a blind alley. Several works on aviation history cite a man named Joyce as the inventor, so that the first form was presumably Joyce stick, later slurred and compressed into joystick.