I'm not saying a name has to provide sufficient context. I'm saying a name that provides that context is superior to one that does not.
A red-black tree is named so because those were the colors their laser printer supplied. This is (much like semaphore) a historical accident. Yet, just by the name red-black, you do indeed have enough context to distinguish it from a plain old binary search tree. The defining feature is that you color every node either red or black, thus red-black in the name.
Likewise with splay tree: the defining function is the splay operation, which the name is a vivid reminder of.
Splay tree and red-black tree are Good Names (TM). B tree, B+ tree, B* tree, Bx tree are Bad Names (TM).
A red-black tree is named so because those were the colors their laser printer supplied. This is (much like semaphore) a historical accident. Yet, just by the name red-black, you do indeed have enough context to distinguish it from a plain old binary search tree. The defining feature is that you color every node either red or black, thus red-black in the name.
Likewise with splay tree: the defining function is the splay operation, which the name is a vivid reminder of.
Splay tree and red-black tree are Good Names (TM). B tree, B+ tree, B* tree, Bx tree are Bad Names (TM).