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I don't know when they first appeared, but RCA had been using that type of interconnect for connecting phonographs to radios since at least the late 1930's. [...Also television audio... the TT-5 audio output was supposed to plug into the "Television" socket found on a number of late-30's RCA radios] Nowadays we just call 'em "RCA plugs" and "RCA jacks," I assume because RCA designed those particular connectors and used them on their equipment, but the connector design just happened to "catch on" as a standard used by other manufacturers. RCA may be gone now, but the design of those interconnects live on... BTW, I've seen some early RCA plugs that had very long center connectors; I don't know if that was typical of early versions of those connectors, or if that was just something RCA did on random pieces of equipment for whatever reason, or what.
Other examples (I think) of single-manufacturer-driven interconnect design include "phone plugs" (specifically, the 1/4" variety), which as far as I know first appeared on Bell Telephone switchboard equipment, but later started finding use in a whole range of audio devices. Also, for you photographers out there, there's the standard "PC socket" for connecting a flash to a camera; the "PC" part of the name stands for "Prontor/Compur", two brand names used by a very large German manufacturer of leaf shutters.
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