The US renaming of "noughts and crosses" to "tic-tac-toe" occurred in the 20th century. In 1952, OXO (or Noughts and Crosses), developed by British computer scientist Sandy Douglas for the EDSAC computer at the University of Cambridge, became one of the first known video games.

Rota, from the latin word ROTAE for 'wheel' is believed to be an ancient roman game of Tic Tac Toe.