Check this out from the Dragon+ article;
“I always like to say that when we went to university, we minored in computer science and majored in D&D. Peter and I were hardcore Dungeons & Dragons players since the late ’70s, as were all five of the original Wizards of the Coast founders and our close friends. And it was our love of roleplaying that ultimately led to us founding the company, spurred on by Peter Adkison,” reveals Steve Conard.
The members of the gaming group that would become business partners played in each other’s D&D campaigns, bouncing between half a dozen thriving worlds. The individual locations of this multiverse were connected by a sophisticated portal system—with its own rules and regulations—that allowed players to travel back and forth between games. And it was a campaign run by DM Butch van Dyck, set in a world called Taragarden, that gave the company its name.
“Butch’s game featured a group called the Wizards of the Coast and they were badass. Each member had stars on their sleeve. And if someone from this guild showed up at a battle with four stars on their arm, it was time to back the hell up!” Peter Adkison remembers.
“When we had a conversation about starting a game company, I think it was Darrell Judd who came straight out and said, ‘We should call it Wizards of the Coast.’ And immediately that tied into the West Coast, but also brought with it the emotions that we had about this guild. There was no discussion after that. It was the only name ever floated for the company.”
magic.wizards.com
