The term "daemon" used in computing is derived from Greek mythology and refers to a supernatural being that is neither good nor evil, but rather an intermediary between humans and the gods
In the Faust story, Faust sold his soul to the devil, & he was assigned the demon Mephistopheles to grant him small wishes & assist him in the greatness for which he traded his soul.
That helper connotation is why the word daemon was used for background processes on unix systems. Perhaps the archaic spelling was chosen to avoid demon's evil connotations.
Interestingly, in Hungarian terminology, the system daemons get renamed to szolgáltatás (service) or varázsló (wizard) instead. The term daemon itself is not used.