How and when did the US armed forces' entity "Central Command" get its name?
I seem to remember central command being in Panama, responsible for
Central America.  The name "Central Command" seems logical.

If Central Command is the combatant command structure for the Middle
East and/or south-west Asia why wouldn't it be called something else,
like Mid-East Command.

Dear grthumongous-ga;

Thank you for allowing me an opportunity to answer your interesting question.

United States Central Command, (USCENTCOM or CENTCOM for short), was
activated by President Ronald Reagan on Jan.1, 1983, USCENTCOM (whose
US based Headquarters is located at MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa,
Florida) is only one of nine Unified Combatant Commands worldwide. It
is the permanent successor to the Rapid Deployment Joint Task Force, a
temporary organization created by President Jimmy Carter in 1980 to
project American power in the Middle East and East Africa. The purpose
of these Combatant Commands is the overall operational control of U.S.
combat forces. In 1983, the Pentagon elevated Persian Gulf contingency
planning by transforming the Rapid Development Force into a separate
military command called Central Command, or CENTCOM.

At the moment, CENTCOM is led by Gen. John Abizaid, who reports
directly to the Secretary of Defense, who in turn, reports only to the
President of the United States. It is one of the five geographically
defined unified commands within the Department of Defense (the other
four are domestic Commands with no specifically designated foreign
area of responsibility). Today it is responsible for planning and
conducting United States (U.S.) military activity in a region
consisting of 25 countries in Northeast Africa, Southwest and Central
Asia, includes the Persian Gulf region (or parts of the Middle East if
you prefer) and the island nation of the Seychelles (basically the
central part of the ?backside? ? no pun intended - of the globe
between the European and Pacific theaters of operation).

CENTCOM AREA OF RESPONSIBILITY
http://www.centcom.mil/aboutus/images/aor_large.jpg
TEXT DETAILS: http://www.centcom.mil/aboutus/aor.htm

The European Command (USECOM) is actually the command with the
responsibility of Israel, Lebanon, Libya and Syria (if you prefer to
think of these as Middle Eastern regions too).
  
EUROPEAN COMMAND AREA OF RESPONSIBILITY
http://www.eucom.mil/AOR/index.htm

The nine Unified Combatant Commands and their commanders are:

U.S. Southern Command Miami, Fla.
Gen. James T. Hill, USAR 
 
U.S. Central Command MacDill Air Force Base, Fla.
Gen. John Abizaid, USAR 
 
U.S. Northern Command, Peterson Air Force Base, Colo.
Gen. Ralph E. Eberhart, USAF 

U.S. Special Operations Command MacDill Air Force Base, Fla.
Gen. Bryan D. Brown, USAR 
 
U.S. Transportation Command Scott Air Force Base, Ill.
Gen. John W. Handy, USAF 
 
U.S. Strategic Command Offutt Air Force Base, Neb.
Adm. James O. Ellis Jr., USN 

U.S. European Command Stuttgart-Vaihingen, Germany
Gen. James L. Jones, USMC
 
U.S. Pacific Command Honolulu, Hawaii
Adm. Thomas B. Fargo, USN 
 
U.S. Joint Forces Command Norfolk, Va.
Admiral E.P. Giambastiani, USN 


In answer to your question then, keeping in mind that each country,
continent and region has an area known locally as ?central?, the term
Central Command extends well beyond that geographically and refers to
the unified combatant forces of the United States centrally located to
the GLOBE spherically opposite the United States on the Earth, rather
than the relatively much smaller Central American region.

Incidentally, the United States Southern Command (USSOUTHCOM) would
(and did) handle any discontent the Panamanian region because it is
geographically south of the United States in their area of
responsibility.

USSOUTHCOM AREA OF RESPONSIBILITY
http://www.southcom.mil/pa/AOR/AORmain.htm

Undoubtedly, USSOUTHCOM established a ?central headquarters? while
they were deployed, but they remained USSOUTHCOM and not CENTCOM.

Having said all that, as a veteran myself (and if you are one too
you?ll really be able to relate to this statement) I can say that the
military always seems to have a very detailed explanation for how and
why the name things like they do, but making sense of it is another
challenge altogether, isn?t it?

Below you will find that I have carefully defined my search strategy
for you in the event that you need to search for more information. By
following the same type of searches that I did you may be able to
enhance the research I have provided even further. I hope you find
that that my research exceeds your expectations. If you have any
questions about my research please post a clarification request prior
to rating the answer. Otherwise, I welcome your rating and your final
comments and I look forward to working with you again in the near
future. Thank you for bringing your question to us.

Best regards;
Tutuzdad ? Google Answers Researcher


INFORMATION SOURCES

UNITED STATES CENTRAL COMMAND
http://www.centcom.mil/

ABOUT UNITED STATES CENTRAL COMMAND
http://www.centcom.mil/aboutus/centcom.htm

?FROM RAPID DEPLOYMENT TO MASSIVE DEPLOYMENT?
http://www.eco.utexas.edu/Homepages/Faculty/Cleaver/357Lsum_s2_StorkandWenger.html


SEARCH STRATEGY


SEARCH ENGINE USED:

Google ://www.google.com


SEARCH TERMS USED:

CENTCOM, HISTORY, AREA OF RESPONSIBILITY, USECOM, USSOUTHCOM, UNIFIED
COMBATANT COMMANDS

Thank you, I found the links to additional resources very interesting.
I think organizations of all types tend to favor acronyms because they
preserve a modicum of mystery/confidentiality to those "outside" and
promote esprit-de-corps for those "inside", the latter being good for
group cohesion.