I think it has to do with the mathematical concept of e more than anything. It's Napier's or Euler's Constant. . . it's an irrational number almost equal to 2.7182818284590452353602874713527. . . and so on, and on, and on. . . like Pi only for logarithms. (1 +1/n)n approaches e as n gets larger. It's a very geeky number, just the thing geeks would tend to put in their logos. Especially in Ne, as a pun on that formula, and a gas that glows when excited.
Ah, yes... I once knew a Hawaiian girl named Nene, who glowed when excited. She was a gas. :)