Why is W called double U and not double V?
The Real Answer
Because the name is older than the modern printed shape. Early English writing used the Latin letter V for both vowel and consonant sounds, and scribes represented the Germanic /w/ sound by writing two of those characters together — essentially `uu` or `vv`, depending on the script. That doubled character developed into the separate letter W. In English, the name “double-u” survived from the period when U and V were not yet treated as the fully separate letters and shapes we use today. Later typography often made W look more like two V's, but the older name stayed.
We named a letter based on what it looked like 800 years ago and never updated it, even though it looks nothing like that anymore. Imagine if we still called your phone a 'brick receiver' because that's what it was shaped like in 1985. The letter is a W. We call it double U. Nobody's happy about it.
The Dunce Dynamics Institute Examines Why People Ask This
People ask because modern uppercase W appears to present obvious visual evidence against its own name. If the alphabet were invented today, “double-v” would look like the straightforward answer. The mismatch exists because the name preserves an older stage of writing while the printed shape kept evolving.