Vitalik Buterin valgte navnet Ethereum efter at browse Wikipedia artiklen om science fiction elementer,  "I immediately realized that I liked it better than all of the other alternatives that I had seen; I suppose it was the fact that sounded nice and it had the word "ether", referring to the hypothetical invisible medium that permeates the universe and allows light to travel."  Historie Ethereum var først beskrevet i et "White paper" af Vitalik Buterin, da han var involveret i "Bitcoin Magazine", i 2013 med målet at bygge en decentral applikation.