I just have seen a "Canonical Limited" is the investor of Ubuntu Linux.
First time I downloaded Ubuntu Linux a US Corporation was an investor of Ubuntu.
Sameways many different guesses about why it has an African word as the name of the distribution came up in new forums about Ubuntu Linux.
As Ubuntu started, it's name was just an African word to turn the common mind in the world of Linux geeks, as most where against asking questions of beginners and answered "use google" or "read the manual (rtfm)" - so creators of Ubuntu used an African word of humanity that it will have several bulletin boards that will not "harm", if a beginner has a frequently asked question. This is how I do know it from the beginning of Ubuntu Linux. Actually some other boards started and even Wikipedia has a different mind of Ubuntu, since Canonical took over.
So what US Corporation was it in the very beginning?