The Star Wars Crew That Created The AT-AT Never Cared For The Name
https://www.slashfilm.com/600841/the-best-star-wars-droids-ranked-by-usefulness/
'In the film, the AT-ATs also needed to be large and impenetrable. “Star Wars” fans will point out that Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) will find that his airplane’s weapons cannot penetrate the AT-AT’s hull, so he wraps a towing cable around its legs, causing it to fall over and explode. It seems Johnston located the AT-AT’s biggest design flaw. As for the name, well, that wasn’t something Johnston or any of the technicians had any control over. He said:
“We never referred to it as the AT-AT. We hated that name. We just called it the snow walker.”’