Cliff, nice of you to thing of me in the form of a Pelican "brain trust." However, having driving hundreds of pounds (however you want to interpt that
), I never gave much thought to the nomeclature.
Originally, in the US anyway, nails were square cut, and held well. I have a small collection of some from various old house I've worked on. These nails were made by a much cruder process than the wire formed nails of today. I also have 5 or 6 old "kegs" of nails that actauly were sold in a small wooden keg. They have to be 100lbs. ea., they are really heavy. So, you will also sometimes hear the term keg; not as much as box. The old carpenters would mix parafin and gasoline and pour the mixture over the open keg to facillitate the driving of the nails. Today, they are coated with a variety of coating matching the intended use.
There are box nails, common nails (thicker shaft), finish nails, and as mention above, lots of specialty nails available. Hot dipped and cold dipped galvanized are smore choices.
Nowadays, nail guns are the order of the day and everone uses them. It's hard to find someone that can hammer/drive a nail well without hitting the wood and it's even harder to find a sharp edge hammer for toe nailing where you have to hit the head of the nail with the very edge of the hammer to drive it flush w/o tearing up the surrounding wood. Pride of craftsmanship is long gone.
I'd say nails are the single most dangerest thing in a workshop or construction site if you consider all of the related injuries.
I con't come to OT much anymore, but it was a fun question. I learnd something.