It may not be the best name, but it sure is better than the names of the projects it was based on: PIK and FUIF. At least if you speak Dutch. A "pik" is a penis and a "fuif" is a party, so the combination would be the "penis party" image codec. I prefer "JPEG XL".

The etymology of the name "XL" is as follows: JPEG has called all its new standards since j2k something that starts with an X: XR, XT, XS (S for speed, since it is very fast and ultra-low-latency), and now XL. The L is supposed to mean Long term, since the goal is to make something that can replace the legacy JPEG and last as long as it did.

PIK project is also a terrible name for people who understand Danish.