why can't the recipient of the first transaction of bitcoins (Hal Finney. Satoshi sent him 10 BTC as a test.) be the second lowest unit? It just makes more sense than using 'bits', in my opinion.
Here's the fun thing about bitcoin.
There is no authority in charge of it. That means there isn't anyone "official" that can say that the name for 0.000001 BTC WILL OFFICIALLY be known as anything at all.
If you start using the word "hals", and you convince your friends to use the word "hals", and you all convince some of the more well known bitcoin related businesses to use the word "hals", then the word "hals" might catch on and before long, it will be known as 1 hal.
You can't force anyone to use your favorite slang name, and nobody can force you to use their favorite slang name. Coordinate an effort, and you just might find that "hal" catches on. If it doesn't catch on, then either you didn't coordinate your effort well enough, or there just aren't enough people interested in using your chosen name.