Huh. I'm amused at the Wikipedia section on this [1].
> The use of Greek letter names is presumably by extension from the common finance terms alpha and beta, and the use of sigma (the standard deviation of logarithmic returns) and tau (time to expiry) in the Black–Scholes option pricing model. Several names such as 'vega' and 'zomma' are invented, but sound similar to Greek letters. The names 'color' and 'charm' presumably derive from the use of these terms for exotic properties of quarks in particle physics.
Who would know? Most of this stuff started off in industry rather in academia; probably somebody started writing a nu on the whiteboard sometime to mean sensitivity to implied vol and someone else gave it a Greek-sounding name that stuck.
It's before my time but I bet it's the finance equivalent of Philosophers (i.e. fashionable nonsense) science-washing their work - even if unknowingly.
