The story
From word + press. Coined by Christine Tremoulet, a friend of the co-founder Matt Mullenweg, who recalled the details in her podcast: He pointed out that he really liked the idea of it being somehow related to the printing press, because the printing press, so many years ago, revolutionized the power of the people because books became accessible, they were no longer so expensive and he truly believed in the power of blogging and this blogging software that he was working on… and really, out of nowhere, it suddenly hit me. I was like, WordPress!
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.