How was SpongeBob made?

Spongebob was created by Stephen Hillenburg. Stephen attended art college, and decided to create a TV program (Spongebob). But the name he first came up with was already an existing product, so he called it SpongeBob SquarePants. Spongebob is based on Stephen, actually, as apparently he himself worked as a fry cook at a seafood restaurant, and that's where he got the idea from. Hope I helped ;-D