As to Heptio’s name, Beda explained: “When we were helping create Kubernetes, we pitched it as ‘Seven of Nine,’ a ‘Star Trek: Voyager’ character who’s a former Borg drone. That was a reference to the Borg, a code name for Google’s internal version of Kubernetes, the thing that runs its search and apps and ads. It’s total geek culture. We wanted a friendlier Borg. That name turned into ‘Project Seven.’ When we went public with Kubernetes, we didn’t want to lose track of the ‘seven.’ The Kubernetes logo has seven sides. ‘Hept’ is the Greek prefix for ‘seven,’ and it’s a way to pull the ‘seven’ through.”
[1] http://www.geekwire.com/2016/ever-come-kooky-kubernetes-name...
I would describe this as a case of 'domain based naming' (i.e. we could get the domain name, it was uncontested space).
I hope to create something positive out of it, if we do it up right hopefully the company character will dominate the name.