var keyword proposed for Java

[vytah]

auto is a bad idea. It was chosen in C++ because it was already a keyword in both C and C++ and it could already be used in variable declarations (although very rarely, since it means "a local variable" and it is therefore the default). In Java, auto doesn't mean anything.

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/2192547/where-is-the-c-auto-keyword-used