I guess it depends on when you started using maya.

In maya pre-version 8 polygon menu was called .... you guessed it "polygons" and nurbs menu nurb called "nurbs".

But then in version 8 the polygon menu changed to "mesh" and the nurbs menu changed to "surface".

Okay but they did not change ALL the nouns to mesh and surface so you have "mesh" and "polygon" as well as "nurbs" and "surface" are used all willy nilly in the current release! That is my complaint!

If they want to change the nomenclature then they should do it consistently!

It's like the context menu using the verb "split" and the general menu using the verb "detach". How many people did not know that "split vertex" == "detach component". You'd have a better clue if they changed it to "split component" RIGHT?

Same with the noun polygon, if you want to change it to mesh then use MESH everywhere! However, in my opinion, polygon and nurb are more context accurate and should not have been changed.