Good ones generate financial support and camaraderie, said astrophysicist Giles Novak. You build a group where the goals are really defined and excellence is recognized, but it has to have a nice name to rally around. Novak works for CARA, a woman's name and an acronym for Center for Astrophysical Research in Antarctica. One of Novak's favorite acronyms sounds like another woman's name. Koruwage Oswald Lakshman Fernando Jayaweera eventually changed his first name legally at an Alaska courthouse to Kolf after years of being called that.
Some physicists love it.
A group of South Pole astrophysicists were talking at dinner recently about Alta Coma Large Meleneta Array. Initially, the scientists said, the project was called the Southern Hemisphere Interferometer Telescope.