Actually the Arabic name they used before they got the grandiose idea that they were the Caliphate and dropped the geographically limiting qualifiers is correctly translated into English as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.
The Arabic word which transliterated to have an initial S was al Sham, which means the Levant, not Syria. Using ISIS, taking the S to mean Syria, deliberately understated their ambition and claims so as to minimize the problem they posed.
On the English acronym, the Obama administration is like the proverbial blind squirrel, and actually got something right.
Personally, I prefer leaving the name in Arabic and making the acnonym Daesh, which seems to anger them, since it sounds like an Arabic word for “to grind under foot”.
After this, I saw in the visions by night, and behold, the fourth beast was fearful and terrible and very strong. It had great iron teeth: it devoured and brake in pieces, and stamped the residue under his feet: and it was unlike to the beasts that were before it: for it had ten horns.
— Daniel 7:7, 1599 Geneva
HELLO! THAT speaks!
“Personally, I prefer leaving the name in Arabic and making the acnonym Daesh, which seems to anger them, since it sounds like an Arabic word for “to grind under foot”.”
That’s what the State Department came down with last winter. They sent a directive out at the Baghdad embassy saying henceforth to refer to ISIS as Daesh, I think they called it “Da’esh” or something similar in the email. I think it’s what the Iraqis prefer.