The language of money added a new word to its vocabulary in December 1995 and this new word was the euro. You might recall the debate that was had at the time – the name “ECU” did not sound particularly good in German while, for the French, it was the name of an ancient coin.
It was decided that choosing the word euro ought to favour no language in particular. This created a solid foundation for the new currency. However, not only the "professional euro-sceptics", but many others too would not have predicted that the euro would be such a success.