A pseudo-acronym (or null acronym) is an apparent acronym or other abbreviation which doesn't stand for anything, or cannot be officially expanded to some meaning. The term "orphan initialism" has been used for initialisms which began as acronym but lost this status. For instance:

• In Texas A&M University's name, the A&M originally stood for "Agricultural & Mechanical," but in 1963, the Texas Legislature approved a bill changing the name of the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Texas to Texas A&M University, making the A&M symbolic but not standing for 'agricultural and mechanical'.
• The term DVD was originally formulated as an acronym for "digital videodisc", and when it was launched it was often marketed as "Digital Versatile Disc". However, the official DVD specification documents have never defined the initialism DVD. 2010}}
• The name of the webcomic XKCD is "not actually an acronym. It's just a word with no phonetic pronunciation -- a treasured and carefully-guarded point in the space of four-character strings."
• The Black Sabbath song "N.I.B." is merely the word "nib" spelled as an initialism, often taken to stand for "Nativity in Black".
• The SAT reasoning test, was the Scholastic Aptitude Test until 1993 when the name was changed from Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) to SAT I: Reasoning Tests
• APM Music is a case of a pseudo-acronym which also doubles as a case of RAS Syndrome. This organization produces generic music for TV shows, movies, video games, etc. Used to be called "Associated Production Music", but was simplified to APM Music later on.
• KFC was for a time a pseudo-acronym for Kentucky Fried Chicken after the company reasoned that in the public mind "fried" now had connotations of "fattening", and so adopted the abbreviated form of their name in 1991.. In 2001 they reverted to the original form, and KFC became a legitimate acronym again.