I think throughout the course of Final Fantasy (and some other RPGs), the creators love to use European terminology for a lot of stuff. For instance, when I used to play Breath of Fire 3 and 4, I thought "Kaiser" was exclusive to that game alone. It wasn't until later I learned that a Kaiser is simply a European emperor or king. They could have called it the Mikado Dragon and had the same effect. I know in FF9, the main character's name (Zidane) is actually common in Europe, and there's a famous soccer player with that name.

I love to geek out over naming schemes, they're so fun.