My mom (Cantonese) once told me at least part of the reason many restaurants have "garden" in their name is because the sound of the word is pleasant to the Chinese ear. "gar-den" means nothing in Chinese (or at least Canto) but it just sounds good, and in the English language it means a pleasant place, making it a good choice for a restaurant name.

Status-symbol names aside, I wonder how many of these names get chosen based on the pleasant sound aspect?