The name "mycofactocin" is derived from three words, the genus name "Mycobacterium" (across which it is nearly universal), "cofactor" because its presence in a genome predicts the co-occurrence of certain families of enzymes as if it is a cofactor they require, and "bacteriocin" because a  radical SAM enzyme  critical to its biosynthesis, MftC, is closely related to the key enzyme for the biosynthesis of subtilosin A, a bacteriocin, from its precursor peptide.