The name is similar and is causing confusion. So, in light of this: why was the name "Dash" chosen?
it seems that Dash was suggested by someone one BCT a while ago as an abbreviation (of sorts) for Digital Cash. but I'm pretty sure that was mentioned in the article you've read. If you're really interested, go back a couple of hundred pages in this thread, there is an extremely exhaustive discussion of Dashcoin, Dash the wahsing powder, and a lot of other things using similar names, as well as the rationale for the name switch
Never-the-less, Darkcoin's change of name to Dash could open up a legal minefield, which could rear its ugly head in the not too distant future.
So, considering all this, why was the name "Dash" chosen?
It has been explained, but I'll refresh. The debate was ongoing on DCT, about the need of a rebrand. Someone suggested Dash and it gained quite a following. This was entirely a community driven debate (not that it didn't come up many times in the past...). The Foundation started studying the legal implications of such a thing, if we were ever to drop the negatively connoted "Darkcoin". They used Dash as a study case, to see what requirements were needed.
It was soon found a "previous use of the name" was point fact to avoid trademark issues, whichever name would ever be chosen. So Evan bought out Dashcoin's github account out of his pocket (Dashcoin being a dead coin) to see what came up next. He logged into the account but forgot to logout and ended up committing Darkcoin code to it, and people spotted it.
A huge mexican soap opera bursted, all hell broke loose, the "cat got out of the bag".... But the community ended up pulling together and supported the idea of an actual rebrand. So "Dash" instantly became the defacto choice by majority of opinion. Then we voted on a logo, rolled op our sleeves, and got back to work hard, real hard, as usual.