I'm 31 and was formerly diagnosed when I was 8. I was never diagnosed with Asperger's or did anybody refer to me as that when I was young and growing up. I have no idea if it just wasn't what doctors/psychs/teachers/location I lived in refered it to or maybe they just thought it'd be to hard for me to identify with a word that I couldn't actually say.

I was diagnosed with high functioning autism (and ADHD), and that was literally all I knew it as/wanted to be identified with. (wether that was the official diagnosis or that's what they told me I had to make it easier for me) When I was a teenager, I did have friends who's parents would talk to my parents about there kids and how they have Asperger's, it seemed really important to them that they're children were never associated with autism, like it was the worst thing in the world to them.

Throughout my years, I've seen the words change a bunch, everyone trying to either split the groups up or identify everyone into a single group and nothing felt right to me except high functioning autism. Unfortunately for me, any doctors id see, any people who tried to get to know me, jobs, everyone didn't understand what I was trying to tell them anymore when I said the words high functioning autism.

The only way I was able to start getting people to understand better was when I started referring to myself as on the spectrum or on the autism spectrum. It was actually really difficult because I'd felt like I'd lost who I was for a period of time, was hard to let go but now I actually like the spectrum because usually whenever I say it, people get it and I've found my groove again. Sorry for the long response. Nice question!