Praetor... The officers from the Roman Praetorian Guard. I thought it sounded cool, and figured anything along the lines of "Emperor" would already be taken, or at least passé.
BTW, I lived in England for three years, and have heard just about every good-natured and not so good-natured argument about why Americans or Britons are superior. I finally came to the conclusion: why argue about it? When the French are so much more annoying than anyone?
Also, in case anyone had doubts as to whether I'm total geek, that quote about England and America being divided by a common language is from Oscar Wilde.