I once asked Gary here if AD&D was an inside joke from his past as an insurance agent - the game of Accidental Death & Dismemberment.I remember finding a non-D&D related and pre-D&D lawsuit where Gary Gygax took the stand as a witness in an insurance fraud by suicide case.
He chuckled he’d played in games that resembled that kind of AD&D, but that wasn’t in their thinking in naming the game.