ANSWER
Sherwood Schwartz, the creator of Gilligan's Island, chose the name as sort of an inside joke, naming the shipwrecked boat after Newton Minow, the FCC chairman described by Schwartz as the man who "ruined television".
Newton Minow, then FCC chairman under the Kennedy administration, is probably best known as the person who described television as a "vast wasteland". While his policies where meant to provide "wider range of choices, more diversity, more alternatives" in television programming, in the end they had the opposite effect. They resulted in more control and authority over television content being given to the "big three" broadcast networks, at the expense of the producers and production companies, like Schwartz, who created the shows.
WHO GOT IT RIGHT: Andie J, Kathy Ippolito, Lee Lewis, and Allan Christensen.
