Thread:Deathstalker666/@comment-30757432-20180403193829/@comment-3547390-20180403203106

Same reason a Scrag is called a Wizard or a Vore is called Shalrath. The game resource files for the Death Knight all refer to it as a "Hell Knight". The names were one of the last things changed, meaning it was a quick visual fix, and so a lot of the names refer to the older names that the enemies had in Beta3.

The reason it was most likely changed was because there is no real Hell in Quake, making the name rather confusing, and the fact that it was already used for a Doom II enemy. Pretty much the same confusion you get with a Fiend being called a Demon.