The name "Jonah" derives from the Old Testament book of the same name. He was swallowed by a whale as part of God's plan to go directly to Nineveh rather than Tarshish.
The title refers to the 1851 Herman Melville novel 'Moby Dick' about the adventures of the wandering sailor Ishmael and his voyage on the whaler "Pequod", commanded by Captain Ahab who had an obsession with the great white whale named Moby Dick. Richard Basehart played the wandering sailor Ishmael in one movie adaptation Moby Dick (1956).