It's explained in Windows PowerShell in Action that is written by Bruce Payette, one of the PowerShell designers:
"before the first public release in 2006, the codename for this project was Monad. The name Monad comes from The Monadology by Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, one of the inventors of calculus. Here’s how Leibniz defined the Monad:
The Monad, of which we shall here speak, is nothing but a simple substance,
which enters into compounds. By “simple” is meant “without parts.”
—From The Monadology by Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (translated by Robert Latta)
In The Monadology, Leibniz described a world of irreducible components from which all things could be composed. This captures the spirit of the project: to create a toolkit of simple pieces that you compose to create complex solutions."
"before the first public release in 2006, the codename for this project was Monad. The name Monad comes from The Monadology by Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, one of the inventors of calculus. Here’s how Leibniz defined the Monad:
The Monad, of which we shall here speak, is nothing but a simple substance, which enters into compounds. By “simple” is meant “without parts.” —From The Monadology by Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (translated by Robert Latta)
In The Monadology, Leibniz described a world of irreducible components from which all things could be composed. This captures the spirit of the project: to create a toolkit of simple pieces that you compose to create complex solutions."