The RSA algorithm was named after its creators: Adleman, Rivest, Shamir. Their initials were ordered "RSA" to reflect that Adleman was the "shoot it down" guy:

The RSA algorithm was named after its creators: Adleman, Rivest, Shamir. Their initials were ordered "RSA" to reflect that Adleman was the "shoot it down" guy: "Rivest and Shamir, as computer scientists, proposed many potential functions, while Adleman, as a mathematician, was responsible for finding their weaknesses." Well, so the story goes. Who would want to hide their secrets in ARS?