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npm did stand for Node Package Manager. It absolutely did. But later someone decided they wanted to give the appearance that it could or should be used for software not related to Node, so they had to strip it of its meaning.
Just like DVD, which was Digital Video Disc until manufacturers decided to market it for things other than video. Likewise KFC and BP now insist their names are meaningless, in efforts to sidestep negative connotations (respectively Fried and British).
// from stackoverflow