The name Ansible is a science-fiction reference. An ansible is a fictional communication device that can transfer information faster than the speed of light. The word was a contraction of "answerable", as the device would allow its users to receive answers to their messages in a reasonable amount of time, even over interstellar distances. Ursula K. Le Guin invented the concept in her book Rocannon's World, and other sci-fi authors have since borrowed the idea from Le Guin. More specifically, Michael DeHaan took the name Ansible from the book Enders Game by Orson Scott Card. In that book, the ansible was used to control many remote ships at once, over vast distances. Think of it as a metaphor for controlling remote servers.

In IT Ansible is a software package (Python, deb, rpm, and so on) that contains ansible-core and a select group of collections.