I've always wondered about Ebony in Skyrim, since in real life it's type of wood, not glass, it always puzzled me how could it be that wood makes the strongest weapons and armor [according to base stats] in all of Skyrim?
Suddenly, thanks to Minecraft, I think I found a possible answer.
Could it be that the creators of Skyrim, and in particular, those who were responsible for the Smithing feature, mistook Obsidian as Ebony, being that the in-game traits of Ebony are incredibly similar to those of Obsidian?
In the wikia page regarding Ebony Ingots, it says that Ebony may be the Skyrim counterpart of Obsidian, but I think it was simply a minor mistake, and referring to the Wikipedia page regarding Obsidian, the physical resemblance between and in-game Ebony Ingot and a real life Obsidian is great.
If this is the case, I'd really like seeing the game's creators switch the names of Ebony and Obsidian, but I'm fine with it either way.
Have a joyful discussion, and sorry if this subject has been already discussed.

Ebony in the ES universe is not ebony in our universe, that is the simply truth behind it. If it is because they chose it or because of an oversight I truly cannot say.

The answer is in the lore. In the TES world ebony is a volcanic rock, not a type of wood.

These topics can get tiring...Sometimes I wish Bethesda opted for the original materials route instead of selecting several different real life materials that have nothing to do with their counterpart in game. Malachite, Corundum, and Ebony just do not mesh well with most people who know about the real life materials.

If the lore states that, then it's probably on purpose. I do like that they took Obsidian as an inspiration towards an in-game mechanic. Thanks for clearing that up for me.

Ebony in TES is a type of dark metal that is found in volcanic regions... sort of obsidian / diorite in look but metal-like.

It's a fantasy world.

Reality doesn't mesh with fantasy. So if they want Ebony to a volcanic ore instead of a dense, dark wood, then it can be so.

If you're too literal, you svck all of the fun out of everything.

sheesh.

Legend says ebony is actually blood of a god. But what is known that it, like glass, is volcanic ore.

Why can't it simply be named for its color? "Hm, this metal is ebony. Let's call it ebony."

Just like mercury was once known as quicksilver. "Hm, this stuff looks almost alive, and it's silvery. Let's call it quicksilver."

Its a case of http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/CallASmeerpARabbit.

Its a magical substance brought to the surface by volcanic activity.

What Captain Hammer said is also a good point.

Lore aside, is it too much of a stretch to think that maybe, just maybe, in a world/dimension/universe that is not our own, we may recognise the same object/substance with different names?

Kind of like the whole Sulphur/Brimstone argument.

Ichor is the blood of the Greek and Roman gods, not sure about what other cultures call their gods blood. Ichor the golden blood of the gods.
But anyways, I think they chose to name it ebony because it is just a wicked color. Ebony in real life is also a color, not just wood. And the color fits in quite well where they put it.

The fantastic material in the Elder Scrolls is called "ebony" because that's what color it is - at this point "ebony" is more commonly used as a synonym for black than it is to refer to the wood.

It's worth noting that Minecraft does the same thing, real life obsidian is extremely easy to break apart but in Minecraft its the hardest material of them all. Both, however, are black.

In both cases I suspect Bethsda/Mojang were fully aware of the real-world material's properties.

Ebony has more of a shiny metallic look to it, and obsidian looks almost like a very dark charcoal gray kind of color.