NoSQL refers to non-relational databases that became popular alternatives to traditional SQL databases. SQL originated from research projects in the 1970s at IBM and Berkeley and saw commercial uptake in the 1980s by companies like Oracle and Tandem. SQL standards were established in the 1980s and 1990s, while open source SQL databases like MySQL and PostgreSQL emerged. The growth of web applications in the 2000s drove the development of NoSQL databases like MongoDB, Cassandra, and Redis to address the needs of sites with large, distributed datasets.