I stumbled upon a great article that answered all of these questions, and I have pretty much summarized it below.
Basically a brief history of the logo will show you that what you see today has undergone some major modifications. The original logo needed to change because their were complaints of it being way too sexual. There was essentially a naked woman on your cup of coffee. So a simpler logo was designed and we eventually arrived at the current design today.
A siren by definition is a cross between a mermaid and.. wait for it.. a "Sheila-na-gig".
Yeah, exactly what I said when I first read it.
"Sheila-na-gig: a reference to a female figure that displays their genitalia to signify the power of female sexuality and fertility.
So think about it. Kind of a smart design. Starbucks is basically using the lure of female sexuality to draw the customer to their coffee. Another example are the sirens in "The Odyssey" that would lure the sailers off course into treacherous waters.
So that's the logo, but why the name? Well have you ever read Herman Melville's 'Moby Dick'?
Apparently the owners of Starbucks wanted to originally call the company "Moby's Coffee" - yes, referring to the giant whale named Moby in the classic novel. This image of a fat whale was decided to be potentially unappealing to coffee drinkers.
Clearly the owners were big fans of the novel though and still wanted to maintain a connection. 'Starbuck' is actually the name of the coffee- drinking first mate from Nantucket in the novel.
The name also brings to mind two different images, stardom and big bucks. Both of which are things the typical American consumer loves.
Clever Starbucks..well played.
Fenkl, Heinz. "The Mermaid." Www.edicott-studio.com. Endicott Studio, 2003. Web. 29 Mar. 2013. <www.endicott-studio.com/jMA03Summer/theMermaid.html/>.
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