The story
Derived from the German Sterkom coined by Fritz Schaudinn in 1899 in "Untersuchungen über den Generationswechsel von Trichosphaerium sieboldii Schn". Abhandlungen der Königl. Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Berlin. 1898: 44https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/96964#page/462/mode/1up. Corresponds to Latin stercus (“dung”) + -ome.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.