Oh, you wanted the stories? I thought it was just the themes. Ok...

My very first snake was a red checkered garter named Indy - a double play for Indiana Jones who hated snakes, and the Indy 500 for the checkers.

My first BP was Nagini, because I adore Harry Potter.
The rescued pastel earned the name SunSpot through his (continued) bright yellows and his survival against high odds.
After those two, I tried to always use God/Goddess or mythical names for the snakes, but it didn't always work. For my ghost corn, I wanted a ghostly name but nothing sounded dignified enough, so he was named Mystic. The lavender corn is so purple that nothing but Amethyst fit her. The female pastel BP deserved a sun name like her counterpart, so she is Aurora. But I did use Zeus, Hera, Ares, Venus, Athena, and Achilles.

The leo gecko was named Pyrite because he's a patternless albino (and thus yellow) and he's a bit of a trickster.
The BTS is Topaz in honor of his unusual caramel coloring.
My breeder mice are always named after foods - most often confections.

Actually, my BF/partner is usually the one to suggest the names for all the animals here...and most of the time those names stick. He's really good with names.
The best name story I have, however, is connected to a tortoise. A Hingeback to be precise, with lovely scalloped edges to her shell. I rescued her from someone who knew nothing about the care of tortoises, and sadly she didn't live too long due to parasites the previous owners bad care had brought about, but she got the perfect name. She was a nice reddish orange color... so we named her Rusty. Rusty the Hingeback.