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Juliet says,
"What's in a name? That which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet."
[Shakespeare: 'Romeo and Juliet', Act 2, Scene 2]
Many trich sufferers have indicated that it was a cause of great relief when they found that their condition had name, and was known to Medicine. Some have wished that the name did not include the term 'mania', for fear that they be branded mad in some way.
The following history of the name is condensed from an essay by G. Christenson and C. Mansueto, to whom we are grateful. The reader is referred to the original work for references to individual terms.
"Hallopeau suggested the name trichotillomania, which he derived from the Greek words trich (hair), tillo (to pull), and mania, the last denoting an abnormal love for, or morbid impulse toward, some specific object, place, or action or, as Hallopeau (1894) implied, insanity.
Objections to the term trichotillomania are occasionally noted, usually in response to the mania suffix, although an alternative meaning of the suffix, frenzy (Stedman's Medical Dictionary 1982), captures the essence of the experience of hair pulling for many.
Other terms, such as trichologia, tic d'épilation, trichopilomania, trichotillosis, trichotilsis, trichomania, trichotillotic, tic trichotillosis, autodepilation, chronic hair pulling, compulsive hair pulling, hair plucking, and trichotillohabitus, have also been used or suggested as alternatives to trichotillomania. However, it appears that the term trichotillomania will likely persist in the foreseeable future.
Other terms like trichocryptomania (occasionally spelled trichokyptomania [sic]) or trichorrhexomania refer to breaking off hair and can be considered variants of trichotillomania."
Perhaps there is a better term, or an ideal term. But it has taken many years to become as widely known and accepted as it now is. Thanks to all those concerned.
[Ref.: Gary A. Christenson and Charles S. Mansueto, "Trichotillomania: Descriptive characteristics and phenomenology". Chapter in the book "Trichotillomania", edited by Dan J. Stein, Gary A. Christenson, and Eric Hollander. American Psychiatric Press, 1999]