[jonsterling]

To be clear, this name was chosen by the creator of Coq, Gerard Huet, with the intention of trolling. It wasn't an innocent French word.

[herbelin]

This is wrong. The name Coq is a reference to CoC (the Calculus of Constructions) and to Coquand (the inventor of the Calculus of Constructions). Incidentally, it is one of symbol of France. Its meaning in English provided an opportunity for Gérard Huet to troll with the name, but if the intent were to troll, there would have been many other possible names suitable for trolling, no need to choose Coq. And reciprocally, with many different names would have it been possible to troll, if your intent is to troll.

[tlringer]

My understanding was that it was the icing on the cake to Huet. I'm still not sure that changes much.

[version10]

Is there a citation? The literature is upfront about the JMeq joke, by contrast I've never read anything about this topic.

I'm neither English nor French. I've never seen anything else than a rooster in the name or the logo.

[herbelin]

In terms of multiplicity of meanings, certainly. Anyway, if you're interested in my personal opinion on Huet's "humour" and how this degenerated, we can talk privately.

[jonsterling]

In english at least, we call this a “double entendre” ;-)

Obviously the very purpose of double entendres is to troll those who will get the second meaning. duh!

[jonsterling]

I wish to clarify this comment; what I said above is strictly correct, but several people have drawn an undesirable conclusion from it which leads me to find a clarification necessary.

It is not the case that trolling English speakers was the primary motivation of Huet. My understanding is that the trolling was a side-benefit to a name he would have chosen regardless of whether it evinced the double entendre.