I seem to recall way back in my early military career (when Christ was still a corporal) that Winston churchill had a hand in their original development as he was the First Lord of the Admiralty and it was the RN that was given the task of developing them as land ships. He also had a hannd in naming them and used the letter 'c' as churhill began witht eh letter 'c'. Now, this may be a lot of crap, but I would be interested in hearing if anyone heard this tale. It could simply be a myth
By the way Canada names its AFVs after North american wild animals: Grizzly, Cougar, Lynx etc. ( I hear we are going to call the LAV III MGS a 'Screaming Sheila')

Halfyank - What you see for the cromweel may seem confusing but this is what it was - A27M was, if i'm right, was the development no. The A27L was the centaur. The letter was the engine type. Cruiser MkVIII denoted hich cruiser it was, so it was the 8th to be developed and Cromwell MkIV meant that it was the 4th version of the A27M Cruiser MkVIII. Hope that helps a bit.

The A27L was the Centaur the 'L' stood for Liberty as in the engine it uesd. (The liberty engine was of an American design, first used in WW I aircraft)

The A27M was the Cromwell the 'M' stood for Meteor A shortened version of Rolls Royce aircraft engine.