Inductance is called
L because of the historical reasons rooted in the early work of scientists in electromagnetism. The symbol
L comes from the
German word "Induktivität", which means inductance. When scientists like Heinrich Lenz and others in the 19th century were developing the theories around induction and inductance, they used the letter
L as an abbreviation from that term.
In the English language,
L was chosen as a simple and convenient symbol to represent this property of electrical circuits. It helped standardize the symbol and make it easy to reference in equations like
V = L * (di/dt), where
V is the voltage across an inductor,
L is the inductance, and
di/dt is the rate of change of current.
So, in short,
L stands for inductance as a shorthand from the German term, and it became widely accepted and used in physics and engineering!