FromJapanese銀杏(ginkyō), fromChinese銀杏／银杏 (yínxìng, “silver apricot”).Ginkgo is the name that is printed inAmoenitatum exoticarum politico-physico-medicarum Fasciculi V [...] (1712) authored byEngelbert Kaempfer, the first Westerner to see the species. In his way of transcriptionginkyo would have beenGinkjo orGinkio but was printed asGinkgo.[1] This was read byCarl Linnaeus, and the misspelling stuck.
2015 October 29, Dave Taft, “The Female Ginkgo Tree’s Acrid Smell of Success”, inThe New York Times[1]:
Like cycads — their gymnosperm relatives — and ferns, theginkgo produces motile sperm.[…] In fact, the tree was originally thought to be extinct in the wild until two populations were located in China. Such nativeginkgos remain rare, with a preference for rich, streamside habitats.
