SAMBA (also known as Samba) is a name derived from Server Message Block (SMB). IBM (International Business Machines) first originated this mechanism in the days of DOS (disk operating system). Microsoft made extensive changes to SMB, and subsequently renamed it to the lesser known CIFS (common internet file system). However, as of Windows Vista, Microsoft moved back and name the product SMB 2.0.
It should be noted that SMB is meant for more than just file sharing. SMB also implements IPC (inter-process communication), which means it is a standard for two personal computers to communicate.