@siracusa@mastodon.social @isaiah@mastodon.social @airspeedswift@mastodon.social I disagree. In the example you gave, I—as a native speaker of American English, but a frequent viewer of UK, AU, IE, and NZ television—feel that "called" and "named" are quite interchangeable. I would even put forward the idea that "named" is actually in decline, and "called" has become the prevalent version in the US.

(I think this all relates to the American variant of English moving towards greater generalization in speech, and the preference towards weakened versions of adjectives. Which are proper: strung or stringed, snuck or sneaked? Soon, "better/best" will become "more good/most good"; language is a living thing, and constantly evolving, although not necessarily for the better.)