Wish you the best anyway :)
More specifically, "pistol" = wild west, unkempt cowboys, sweaty mexicans, dusty towns, etc. Similarly, "lake" = tranquility, fishing, retirement, discomfort (to the urbanites). It's just a conflicting mess of associations. I think you are shooting yourselves in the leg with this rebrand, and I really wish that you weren't.
So that leaves us with establishing a new brand, and while there were some good ideas, none of them really stuck. We're investing our lives into building a long-lasting company and I'd rather build a brand around something that is already really meaningful to me than a made up word or one that has less emotional connection.
Also, I think you might have your priorities wrong. There certainly should be an emptional connection, but it should be that of your customers rather than yourselves. In the end it's not you who's going to be buying your shirts.
btw I'm right in the target demographic and I'm not very fond of the new name. Something with "pistol" in it evokes not-so-nice concepts, and teenage brands with words like army/fight/420/skulls/maryjane/etc.
I'd guess that for the desired characteristics -- masculine, trustworthy -- respondents wound up applying a sort of 'handicap theory' analysis to the names. That's the idea that in certain status/fitness competitions, sometimes strength is signaled by demonstrating the ability to take on otherwise costly/tangential burdens. (A peacock's feathers and other sexually-selected exaggerated characteristics are the classic examples.)
That is, certain flaws in the names actually indicated: this brand is strong enough not to pander. 'Rowe Brook' is a bit mysterious. Probably a name, but one that is uncommon, not definitively gendered, and perhaps prone to mishearing (that silent 'e') or teasing puns. A person with that name, and choosing to use that name for their business, has nothing to prove and isn't cloying for approval: hence the high 'trustworthy' rating. (Two of the lowest-trustworthy are pandering: 'rogue ethike' and 'unbeholden'. Real unbeholden rogues don't have to remind people they're that way!)
'Pistol Lake' is sure to turn off a few people due to its gun-association. But again, the subconscious reasoning among a wider audience may be: if a brand can shake that off... maybe it's strong in other dimensions? ...or they're so manly they don't care what some may think?
It has been fascinating though, and we definitely plan to do further research for other decisions in the future.
