Lisp's quote (or ') comes from the word quote and the context:

  (quote something)

Meaning: take whatever follows and leave it alone. Do not interpret it. If it's a list it stays a list (one of the main uses for this). The single quote ' is shorthand for that. It's meant to be an easier way to create a literal list (and other things) without escaping all the parts of a list that might be misinterpreted as symbols to evaluate (to values or functions).