For a while now, fans of Bleach have been wondering how did the popular manga and anime series get its name. Some thought that because Kubo was a big fan of the band Nirvana, that he named the series after one of their albums. Another theory was that it was used as a metaphor, because the Soul Reapers "cleanse" the Hollows. And the last one is that people thought that Ichigo bleached his hair orange.
Of course, none of these ideas were confirmed by Kubo. But in the November 2008 issue of Shonen Jump, Kubo finally explained why Bleach is called "Bleach".
Tite Kubo:
The title wasn't Bleach when I decided to draw a story about Soul Reapers. This was before I drew the one-shot manga that appeared in Akamaru Jump. The weapon wasn't a sword, but a scythe. Only Rukia had a scythe and the other characters used guns. At that point, the title was Snipe [as in "sniper"]. Right before I started drawing, I began to think that a sword would be better and realized I couldn't use Snipe as a title anymore. I began looking for a title that grasped the bigger picture. Soul Reapers are associated with the color black, but it would have been boring to use "black." "White", on the other hand, can suggest black as a complementary color. So I chose "bleach" to evoke the impression of the color white.
And there you have it. The issue is settled. Now if only those nasty fillers would stop....