The character's original name was Singleton.
Jan
Why'd Joe change it?
Unknown, but it may have been a clearance issue (read: The legal folks wouldn't let him for some reason). All I know is that the progression was Singleton, then Drake and then Gideon and JMS confirmed that
there were biblical reasons for the name. A friend tells me that the name Gideon means 'Destroyer' or 'Mighty Warrior' or 'Feller of Trees'.
Jan
Drake, huh? Might simply be that it's been used ("John Drake: Secret Agent" and "Duck Drake" and Disney's "Drake Mallard," etc.). Or it might just be that the story of Gideon had more resonance for the Crusade story (Which has always been my assumption, though I have no idea what that might mean)
Here's the cliff notes version for people who aren't particularly Bible-readers
In the pre-monarchy days of Israel, the country existed as a loose confederation of 12 tribes. Periodicaly threats would arive, and a "Judge" would arise, lead the people to victory, then Judge the country (A rather vague description) until they died. The internal chronology is somewhat unclear, so it's possible some of the judges were at the same time, or overlapped or whatever. The only other particularly famous judge was Sampson.
In the mid-12th century BC, Israel had turned it's back on God (Which it did fairly reglularly) and was invalded by the Amalekites . He led a crusade to destroy all the shrines, altars, and temple of Ba'al and associated pagan gods from the land, then put together an army (Consisting of only members of 4 tribes interestingly), then defeats the Amalekites.
Gideon is noteworthy for two things:
1) Gideon displays a rather staggering lack of faith when called by God at the start of his story. He asks for sign upon sign upon sign, which he's granted.
2) Gideon is told by God to send most of his forces away so history will show this victory was the work of God and just just two armies whackin' on each other. Despite havint 22,000 able-bodied men, Gideon sends home all but 300 I believe.
The final battle is interesting. Gideon's forces surround the Amalekite camp at night, and on cue, they all smash a large clay pot on the ground in unison, light torches, and scream "The sword of the Lord and of Gideon!" The Amalekies are startled awake and thrown into utter confusion, and Gideon's army basically slaughters them.
And that's pretty much that. "Excalibur" is a sword...it's in the book of Judges if anyone wants to try to ferret out more clues.
Here in the States, Jan is a female name, usually short for Janet or Janice whereas outside of the US it tends to be a male name with a different pronunciation. And just to get a little more weird, my full name is Jan M. Schroeder - initials JMS. 
