[Dalewyn]

Amusing joke, but it actually is effectively called the 586 because the internal name is P5 and Penta from which Pentium is derived is 5.[1]

Incidentally, Pentium M to Intel Core through 16th gen Lunarrow Lake all identify as P6 ("Family 6") for 686 because they are all based off of the Pentium 3.

[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pentium_(original)

[xattt]

You’re missing the fact that Intel wanted to differentiate itself from the growing IA-32 clone chips from AMD and Cyrix. 586 couldn’t be trademarked, but Pentium could.

[nayuki]

Also, as per the page:

> Intel used the Pentium name instead of 586, because in 1991, it had lost a trademark dispute over the "386" trademark, when a judge ruled that the number was generic.