Well, Rust isn't actually named after iron oxide. It's actually named after the fungus (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rust_(fungus)). Most people just don't know about the fungus.

When it comes to connotations, "what people know about" is more important than the intent.

When it comes to connotations, the one's associated with Rust are beyond negligible...

How so? For me, "rust" conjures images of a rusty nail, rust getting in your tap water, a machine in disrepair from rust, and becoming "rusty" at some skill.

And I don't think I'm alone.

And Python conjures images of dangerous snakes (and people getting killed by them), Go conjures images of that argument with my SO, when she told me "go!", C# conjures images of sharp objects like knives, and PHP conjures images of programming in PHP.

It's just a name, nobody really cares about rusty nails and rust in tap water when discussing Rust the programming language. And by nobody I mean nobody in the statistical significant sense.

It's really bikeshedding.

Just so we're on the same page, are you dismissing all relevance of PL names, or just the downsides of this particular one? That is, are you saying you wouldn't balk at naming a (enterprise-promoted) language something like Filth, Feces, Pubes, Jizz, or (Brain)fuck? Would those be "just names" too?

You're right that no language's name is perfect and immune from bikeshedding; however, the psychophysical mechanism of disgust works at a far deeper, extra-rational level than other negative traits. "Rust" evokes it, pythons don't.

I'm not sure if that's more positive..