Wulf Ratbane, you make some very interesting points. Rules-only terms should be as clear as possible. For example it was a very bad move, imo to call the GM in Nobilis 'The Hollyhock God'.
However there's a grey area when some rules terms exist also in the game world. For example spell names. These are both a rules term and are known to the inhabitants of the D&D universe. And in fact D&D spell names are all over the place. Some are very simple, such as Fireball, some are grandiose such as Mordenkainen's Magnificent Mansion. There are no naming conventions, so you can't tell that Shapechange is more powerful than Polymorph Self for example.
Class names are particularly tricky. Some, such as fighter, are presumably rules only. Others, such as wizard and sorcerer may be known to students of magic as a recognisable form of spell casting.
Maneuvers, such as power attack, might have game universe names but we don't know what they are, we only know the rules term.
HERO handles powers by having two separate names - one for the rule and one for the game universe. For example Doctor Inferno's flame attack has a rules name - 16d6 Energy Blast - and a world name - Fiery Doom. Is this how you think D&D should handle it?
