One explanation that left a deep impression on me is[1]:

  it stands for 'Copy and Convert' and was renamed to `dd` only because `cc` was reserved for the C compiler!

[1]: https://unix.stackexchange.com/a/6835/192313

Reminds me of IBM => HAL, just the other direction

APL -> BQN where the author remembered the alphabet wrong : https://chat.stackexchange.com/transcript/message/54753804#5...

The part about "throwing bolts" reminds me of the plot in Roadside Picnic.

I've been using it for years and am quite happy with it. I also write some bookmarklets and userscripts to go along with it. For example, I have a bookmarklet for my bookmark service called BM. When I want to save a webpage, I type 'b' (to open bookmarks) -> 'bm', and everything is ready.