No, not the ship, the name "Banu" and the alien race to which the label is affixed. A quick summary of what we know of the Banu (mostly from memory and subject to interpretation and debate) right now, with some background about "why" we know what we do (if you just want the "juicy" bit about the name "Banu" and a likely source of the name you can just skip down to below the break) Otherwise, here we go:

They're a somewhat mysterious mercantile race who would "sell their own mother for a quick credit" and their real world inspiration/parallel would be the merchants Persians and/or "Arabs" (I know saying just "Arabs" is an extreme simplification but no one is being graded for this so lets keep it simple) of the Silk Road. Now, remember, all of the information we know about the Banu we learn from the perspective of an average UEE citizen (think average Roman citizen) and to the UEE (and parallel Rome) the Banu (Persians/Arabs) are/were mysterious and only concerned about trade as, essentially, the only contact we've had with them has been through trade and not a whole lot else because that's the only thing they want to do away from home.

As far as the deeper details on their culture, religion, and government go those I believe were sourced from another, more... "Western" culture closer to Rome geographically... I'll get to that later.

tldr: Perspective is important, me being nitpicky, more on this later

Now on to the more interesting part about the etymology of "Banu" which ever since I first heard it seemed familiar and it wasn't until I was playing a game of Europa Universalis IV that I discovered why it had sounded so familiar. I was taking a break from beating back the Turkish monstrosity as Glorious Mother Russia and perused the Middle East. I noticed the name of a particular territory in the modern day Arab Gulf (aka Persian Gulf, aka Oilland) by the name of "Banu Yas" roughly where the modern United Arab Emirates is today. In Arabic, this is ( بَنُو ياس ) which usually seems to be commonly transliterated as "Bani Yas" however I disagree with this common transliteration as the "و" in Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) sounds more like a "wow" or "ew" or, more simply, a "u" sound in English. A heavily condensed and simplified history of the "Bani Yas" is: tribal confederation that would eventually settle down, spawn al-Maktoum family which would be the "founders" of Dubai as well a number other regionally influential families. There is also a Sir Bani Yas (صير بنى ياس‎) island to the Southwest of Abu Dhabi although THAT spelling (بنى) would read "Banee" or "Bani" to me. This is all of course from my admittedly novice understanding of MSA Arabic and the local dialect might come into play here but from what I understand "Gulfie" Arabic is fairly close to MSA. I am also not sure if there's any case markings missing from their wiki pages and those things are always a pain.

The focus on trade could (stretching here) be melding in the modern cultural aspects of the Banu Yas' kin as well and not just historical. Modern Dubai and Abu Dhabi have both increasingly moved past being dependent on oil revenues to more business and trade oriented economic activities, sort of, its complicated. Needless to say there is more to the Banu's inspiration than just their historical real world namesake...

Warning! Speculation levels increasing!

As for the other cultural, religious, and governmental influences to the Banu, not entirely related to trade, things get a bit more fuzzy and I'm working on even more limited information and pretty much just one source. To that end I will take a different approach than before and break down various references from the Banu Reveal and attempt to parse out where it might have been sourced from (Spoilers: probably Greece):

While each of the planets boast their own specific flavor of culture and tradition...

Along with:

Republic of Planet-States, each run under its own political system. The leaders (or selected representatives) of each planet will gather for a quorum to to discuss/debate legal and trade issues that affect the entire species. Otherwise, each is left to their own devices to succeed or fail.

Suggests a Greek city-state esque system, however, as it is described that doesn't really sound like a republic to me but a confederation. The pre-Emirates tribal system that the "real" Banu existed in doesn't fit the bill here as there's far too much of a concentration on "unique flavors of culture and tradition" and trade of the Banu whereas the tribes around the "real" Banu spent more time fighting each other than trading with each other. To be fair, the Greek city states did the same too but having established cities and "clear" cultural boundaries helps.

The Banu can pull together a formidable fighting force if needed, but they do not have a dedicated standing army. Instead, the Banu Militia keeps the (relative) peace on a day-to-day basis within their systems.

This could honestly be referencing anyone before standing armies became a normal thing but sounds like how the Greek city-states reacted to outside invasions like the Persians (300 anyone?).

Religions: Multiple

Again, could be almost anyone as long as we're talking pre-Christianiy and pre-Islam but again, fits the Greek bill.

Finally, I didn't even touch on the Persian influence but that I feel is where the Banu's "geographical" proximity and ship "architecture" comes into play, although the former can also be attributed to the Greek influence and the latter is pure speculation.

This section was admittedly pretty weak and if anyone has anything they can add that'd be helpful. Also, Is there an anthropologist or historian in the house? This is a bit outside of my specialty and I am bound to leave something out or get something wrong.

I hope this was at least a little enlightening, although like most lore at this point, this is all speculative.

Thank you for your time!

FInal tldr: "Banu" comes from the name of a tribe in Arabia. The Banu are (probably) an amalgamation of Greek, Persian, and Gulf Arab influences and I want to fly my Banu Merchant Man now.

Sources:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bani_Yas

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sir_Bani_Yas

http://www.sheikhmohammed.com/vgn-ext-templating/v/index.jsp?vgnextoid=499b4c8631cb4110VgnVCM100000b0140a0aRCRD

https://robertsspaceindustries.com/comm-link/transmission/12988-t

Years of failing miserably at trying to be fluent in Arabic

BA in International Affairs with a concentration on the Middle East

EU IV

Procrastination