I think the trick is in choosing a new name that actually sounds nicer than the old one, and not that of an alien overlord.

Well, they are mercenaries after all...

I half suspect they picked a difficult to pronounce name so nobody would talk about them.

Neither of the names are PR gold. 'Blackwater' is the plumber's term for sewage. 'Xe' sounds alien or like a B-movie villain accent: "We have xe plans, nothing will prevent xe final solution now!"

The genius behind 'Xe' is that some people will say 'zee', others will say 'ecks-ee'. If someone hears something bad about the organization by mouth, they won't know what to type into Google to read about it, and even if they do know how to spell it they'll get hits about a noble gas and a currency exchange site.

They are both really spooky sounding names, though. Blackwater is so alpha-male sounding, and it makes the phrase "Blackwater Contractor" sound (probably) more evil than they actually are.

They were originally named after the area in Virginia where they were located, but what always struck me as odd (given that they are all ex navy) is that "black water" is the common nautical term for ship sewage. That's a rough brand association to overcome.

The (evil) genius in the Blackwater rebranding is that they anti-SEO'd themselves by picking such an overused new name. Even if you followed the name change, searching for Xe didn't return any Blackwater-relevant results for quite awhile.

And unless people spell it out in conversation, no one would know to search for "Xe" anyway.