Some crochet terms have retained their historical names and remain relevant in today's crafting world. Amigurumi is Japanese for stuffies, toys or dolls that we would typically call them in North America. Afghans is another name from the past.
The word "Afghan" has two meanings that are unrelated. Afghans can be referred to as the people from Afghanistan, just like we from Canada can be called Canadians. In this case, it also refers to blankets or throws.
Since the 1800s, a blanket or shawl has been called an afghan. Inspired by Afghanistan's woven textiles. It would be referencing both knit and crochet projects.
As time has moved on in the knitting world, the term afghan has been replaced with blanket. We are currently in a time when the word "afghan" is phasing out in North American crochet. Times change, and so do educational levels and relevance.
Made popular by Yarnspirations, Bernat Blanket yarn has come along in the 2000s and blankets designed with this yarn would not have the term afghan applied to those designs, as they wanted to connect the dots that the Bernat Blanket yarn makes, just that, blankets.
For baby blankets, it retained the name "Baby Blanket".
New crocheters are entering the marketplace and are unaware of the term "afghan". It makes searching for them much harder. Designers have been moving towards addressing the lack of education provided to everyday folks, who wouldn't know to look up crochet afghans but would be searching for a crochet blanket. It skews search engine results if the user is unaware of the historical term for crochet blankets, such as "afghans".
It's not because people are stupid; it's just a lack of knowledge, which isn't their fault. Passed-down knowledge through education isn't always available to everyone.
I have been phasing out the word "Afghans" as well. It's not because of the term, but because of a lack of knowledge among the public. I have a better chance of my patterns being discovered through search if I use a blanket instead.
I suspect Amigurumi will phase out in North America, as new crocheters aren't looking for projects with Japanese names. I think we will see people calling them dolls, toys, stuffies, or something along those lines. Again, lack of knowledge makes it harder for a new crocheter to find ideas or patterns. Once they know, they know, but getting them to that moment isn't obvious to someone new.
Essentially, designers need to account for the consumer's knowledge base, who may be looking for their designs. It's no harm, though, to refer to the terms in articles, but it may not be the best to use them in the titles, as it could throw off new crocheters who are aware of the meaning.
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