What's In A Name?

Looking through my plant tags this evening, I realized that some of my plants seem to go together very well. Almost too well... as if the specific cultivars were chosen because their names went with a theme of sorts.

On the one hand, I have the "Warrior Plants." Plants with the names of warriors, implements of war, those who might lead others into battle, and things that might easily be fought over or spilled during combat, including:

'Samurai Warrior' Bearded Iris
(pictured)
'Troy's Gold' Plectranthus
'Silver Scrolls' heuchera
'Silver Queen' ajuga
'Ivory Queen' allium karataviense
'Golden Sword' yucca
Sorghastrum nutens 'Sioux Blue'
Sedum 'Purple Emporer'
Liriope 'Silver Dragon'
'Samurai' tricyrtis
'Ivory Prince' hellebores
'Purple Dragon' lamium
'Hadspen Blood' astrantia
'Othello' ligularia

On the other hand, there is definitely a "Fire and Ice" theme going on as well. This is probably very fitting for someone whose high school boyfriend referred to her as the Arctic Queen. (Yes, I know there is a clematis by that name... no, I will not be adding it to my garden!)

My Fire-and-Ice plants include:

'Solar Flare' bergenia
amsonia 'Blue Ice'
'Lightning Strike' tricyrtis
salvia lyrata 'Purple Volcano'
carex comans 'Frosted Curls'
'Dark Star' coleus
brunnera 'Jack Frost'
'Diablo' purple ninebark

Interestingly, I had very little (okay, nothing) in the way of plants with sugary, warm-and-fuzzy names, 'Sweet Kate' spiderwort aside. So that makes me wonder... what's in a name? Do the plants I tend to like lend themselves to certain types of names?

Most of the time, it's just about the plants when I make purchases. I have a few unfortunately named plants in my yard. And I would have purchased regular allium karataviense instead of these 'Ivory Queens'... but does a cultivar name subconsciously influence my buying decisions?

For example... would the beautiful red iris above have made it into my cart if it had a sappier name, like 'Heart's Delight' for example, instead of the bold 'Samurai Warrior' that (I admit) kind of gets my blood racing? (That it reminds me of a certain sexy actor in The Last Samurai doesn't hurt, either.)

Hmm. While I ponder this, I would be interested in knowing whether any other gardeners have noticed a theme running through their gardens, unplanned. These name themes certainly snuck up on me--it's not like I was planning a theme garden, that's for sure. I'm simply not that organized! Anyone else?