Honi soit qui mal y pense ;) A coq is a rooster in French, as can be seen from the coq logo. One of the author is called Coquand, the rooster is the emblem of France (where it comes from) and the coq language is called gallina (rooster in latin). So it's a multi levels pun, and likely here to stay. There's a grand tradition of goofy names in open source, but in this case I feel it's safe to say it won't be the main barrier to mass adoption.

Is it really an issue though? Don't restaurants have coq au vin on the menu where you're from?

Sometimes a cringe-inducing name is great for visibility and marketing. See "Wii", even "iPad"...

This issue is addressed in the FAQ: https://coq.inria.fr/faq?q=node/16&som=2#htoc4

Actually this is funny, because "bit" means in French the same thing as "Coq" in English. Probably to be fair we should debate about renaming "bit" also :) (or not).