[dannyobrien]

Yes, worth noting that this was an initial goal of Rust: to use research that was rarely implemented, but established and non-novel among CS academics. See http://tim.dreamwidth.org/1784423.html -- I remember some comment about this being part of the choice of the name, too, but I can't find anything specific or definitive about that.

[Manishearth]

The name "Rust" has so many origin stories; IIRC the creator kept changing the story each time he was asked :)