Beanut,
Typically companies (and government agencies) have provided names for their internal projects. This seems to be fairly common.
Mercury, Gemini, Apollo, etc....
I have heard some say that this is meant to keep secret/confuse competition, as saying you are working on 'Pinatubo' gives very little information as to what you are really working on.
Personally, I like to think that by calling it something innocuous, it leaves room for Marketing to decide what they really want to call their new product.
Artists, mountains, novels, minerals, politicians, movies, anything is fair game.
I used titles of novels for one string of releases. It was actually quite amusing to send out the "Dr. Faustus" release, followed by the "Paradise Lost" release.
Austin