Why did the wwf change its name to WWE?

Because WWE got sued by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF). Since WWF of Nature was formed in 1961 and WWWF (World Wide Wrestling Federation) changed to WWF of Proffesional Wrestling in 1979, the name technically belonged WWF to the World Wildlife Fund.

The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) realized this in 2000 and sued the World Wrestling Federation (WWF), forcing them to change their company name in 2002. They chose WWE (World Wrestling Entertainment).

This is why in some of the WWF DVD's are censored when ever said or showed. The actual name World Wrestling Federation was acceptable. An example of this was in the game, Legends of Wrestlemania. If you have the game, take a close look at the Stone Cold vs. The Rock Storyline movie. All WWF logos are censored out, however the people that are talking refer to it as WWF, since they said that when the clip was filmed. The outcome of the lawsuit said this was acceptable. Also, notice how they named the game WWE Legends of Wrestlemania, instead of the name WWF. All in game logos were W, instead of the attached WF. The announcer would also say "The WWE Champion, Hulk Hogan," for example, even though the game setting was place in the 80's and 90's.

On the January 26th, 2009, a special edition of Raw was aired - it was the old theme of "Raw is War", the brand name used in in the late '90s to 2001. They used the old, yellow WWF logo (not the WWF Attitude one), but called it World Wrestling Entertainment. This was also acceptable.

Furthermore, the WWE was required to inform the millions of people watching at home as well as the fans at the arena (on the first day the show was aired as "WWE) that a lawsuit had taken place and that the WWF was to be the WWE.

For the first year, the show was called "WWE! Get the 'F' Out! Coincidentally, John Cena joined the WWE around this time (2002-2003) and The Rock was leaving.

In addition, old Video Games such as WWF Know Your Role and WWF No Mercy are allowed to keep the WWF Attitude logo without market change or game modifications.

The one we have today is just a modification of the WWF logo, and will probably be for a long time.

Answer from: BFTdrmucko and Jgcena