@vaporeon_ sun microsystems trademarked JavaScript in the 90s because of course they did, so when JavaScript was standardized (I believed in 1997?) the committee was not sure if they had the rights to publish a document with that term.
they were going to call it LiveScript (or was it ActionScript? i forgot which) but Netscape had also trademarked that name and as such the committee wasn't sure if they could use that name either.
the group which standardized JavaScript was, at the time, part of the European Computer Manufacturer's Association, or ECMA for short, and since they ran out of time before both Sun and Netscape could get back to them regarding the preferred names, the committee decided to settle with the name ECMAScript. Nobody liked the name but it was chosen and now it stuck.
@aescling @vaporeon_ have PATIENCE you creature whose name i forgot