The name of this program was originally chosen to avoid conflicts with a program called "newplot", and was originally a compromise between "llamaplot" and "nplot".<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.gnuplot.info/faq/faq.html#SECTION00032000000000000000|title=gnuplot FAQ|website=Gnuplot.info|access-date=27 June 2022}}</ref>
Support of Epidemic daily and weekweekly formats in Version 5.4.2 is a result of pandemic coronavirus data needs.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://gnuplot.sourceforge.net/ReleaseNotes_5_4_2.html |title=Gnuplot Version 5.4.2 Release Notes |access-date=2021-06-08 |archive-date=2021-06-08 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210608120649/http://gnuplot.sourceforge.net/ReleaseNotes_5_4_2.html |url-status=live }}</ref>
Development Version 5.5 is 2021 available.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://gnuplot.info/docs_5.5/Gnuplot_5_5.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210508211440/http://gnuplot.info/docs_5.5/Gnuplot_5_5.pdf |archive-date=2021-05-08 |url-status=live|title=gnuplot 5.5 : An Interactive Plotting Program : Thomas Williams & Colin Kelley|website=Gnuplot.info|access-date=27 June 2022}}</ref>
