manual/include/why-is-it-called-ardour.html

<p>
  The name <dfn>"Ardour"</dfn> came from considerations of how to pronounce the
  acronym <abbr title="Hard Disk Recorder">HDR</abbr>. The most obvious attempt
  sounds like a vowelless "harder" and it then was then a short step to an
  unrelated but slightly homophonic word:
</p>

<blockquote><p>
  <dfn>ardour</dfn> <em>n</em> 1: a feeling of strong eagerness (usually in
  favor of a person or cause); "they were imbued with a revolutionary ardor";
  "he felt a kind of religious zeal" [syn: ardor, elan, zeal]<br>
  2: intense feeling of love [syn: ardor]<br>
  3: feelings of great warmth and intensity; "he spoke with great ardor" [syn:
  ardor, fervor, fervour, fervency, fire, fervidness]
</p></blockquote>

<p>
  Given the work required to develop Ardour, and the personality of its primary
  author, the name seemed appropriate even without the vague relationship to
  HDR.
</p>

<p>
  Years later, another interpretation of "Ardour" appeared, this time based on
  listening to non-native English speakers attempt to pronounce the word.
  Rather than "Ardour", it became "Our DAW", which seemed poetically fitting
  for a Digital Audio Workstation whose source code and design belongs to a
  group of collaborators.
</p>