The Java class and many other occurrences grew out of the name of the Observer/Observable design pattern[1] in the "Gang of Four" "Design Patterns" book.[2]
The Go4 call this a “Subject” rather than an “Observable”. As far as I can tell the only occurrence of the word “observable” in the Go4 book is:
> Other user interface toolkits that employ this [Observer] pattern are InterViews [LVC89], the Andrew Toolkit [P+88], and Unidraw [VL90]. InterViews defines Observer and Observable (for subjects) classes explicitly. Andrew calls them "view" and "data object," respectively. Unidraw splits graphical editor objects into View (for observers) and Subject parts.
> Other user interface toolkits that employ this [Observer] pattern are InterViews [LVC89], the Andrew Toolkit [P+88], and Unidraw [VL90]. InterViews defines Observer and Observable (for subjects) classes explicitly. Andrew calls them "view" and "data object," respectively. Unidraw splits graphical editor objects into View (for observers) and Subject parts.