The system of names used today for Greek vases has quite rightly been described by one leading scholar as 'chaotic'. Many of the names were first applied in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries by scholars who tried to fit the names of pots that they knew from Greek and Latin literature or inscriptions to the pieces then surfacing from excavations. More recent studies of inscriptions on the actual pots have brought some of the correct names to light, and it is becoming increasingly clear that very few of the names used today were used in antiquity. However, the present system is so widespread that it would be very difficult to sweep it away and replace it with something more logical.
This is a companion discussion topic for the original content at https://www.worldhistory.org/article/243/greek-vases-names-shapes-and-functions/.