LEGO is the building toy line created by the Danish company the LEGO Group (or LEGO A/S) that the games are modeled off of. The word Lego comes from the two Danish words leg godt, meaning "play well". This is referenced in the LEGO Island instruction manual.
The first LEGO bricks were made out of wood in 1932 before switching to plastic in 1947. The LEGO brick that is popular today was created in 1958 with LEGO coming to the United States just three years later. In the mid to late 90s, LEGO was branching out into the video game market, first releasing LEGO Fun to Build, exclusive to Japan on the Sega Pico before releasing the critically acclaimed LEGO Island two years later, leading to more games being created to this day.