" Unfortunately “serpents” are often associated with negative connotations, and we’ve had a lot of feedback over the years that the name was off-putting. Let’s be completely honest, it’s not the most inviting name for a project. Who wants to trust a serpent? Generally speaking they’re considered dangerous at best...
...The phonetic “Erin” is a nod to the Irish roots of the project, and of course a home. There are a number of reasons for the name, which will form part of the initial documentation on the new website."
I get it. Erin itself is a pretty cool OS name too.