Don't despair, Paul; your instincts are correct. The names that sound
suspicious may not have literal sexual meanings, but many of them were
probably intended as puns.
 
A possible example from the world of trace fossils is Bergaueria, the name
for a round, stubby, vertical cylindrical burrow. The author, Prantl, wrote
that he intended to honor Bergauer, a Czech geologist who was killed by the
Nazis. The oral tradition is that Prantl also considered the late Bergauer
to be a little putz.
 
Other dubiously named trace fossils include Diplocraterion yoyo (a burrow
that went up and down), Taenidium satanassi (named for a place in Italy),
and Walcottia devilsdingli (named for a place in Britain). I'm quite sure
that the authors of these names chose them carefully from among other, more
prosaic alternatives. Then there's Rusophycus impudicus, of which all I can
say on Conch-L is that it really was named descriptively.
 
Andrew
 
Andrew K. Rindsberg
Geological Survey of Alabama