According to Ken Maclean in a letter to Nature, patients don’t like it when clever geneticists name genes after cartoon characters, video game characters, and Monty Python characters (see here if you don’t follow). I’m not sure if I can reproduce the letter or if it’s under copyright protection (now that I’m working for the man, I don’t wanna be breaking no laws), but it’s available here. The gist of it is, if you’re ill (not like the Beastie Boys, but like dying from cancer), you don’t wanna be told that your Pokemon or Sonic hedgehog gene is all fucked up.
Update: Here is some more on gene names inspired by mythology.