alt Hacker NewsI've been teaching math for 35 years, which I admit, doesn't say much, but I assure you the difficulties students have with complex numbers by and large have nothing to do with the name. It's the same with everything else: lack of preparation in arithmetic and basic algebra.
Well calling complex numbers "rotational" would at least give a clue to what they do.
You can do them purely geometrically, so lack of preparation in arithmetic and algebra isn't a pre-requisite.