> Clojure both Keeps and Breaks Tradition ... When Rich Hickey invented Clojure, he kept the gems of the LISP tradition, but jettison much of the muck. This is why Clojure has first instead of car and rest instead of cdr

Rich Hickey did not invent 'first' and 'rest'. LISP has those since the end of the 70s in language standards.

From Common Lisp the Language, published 1984, chapter on lists:

    [Function]
    first list 
    second list 
    third list 
    fourth list 
    fifth list 
    sixth list 
    seventh list 
    eighth list 
    ninth list 
    tenth list

    These functions are sometimes convenient for
    accessing particular elements of a list. first
    is the same as car, second is the same as cadr,
    third is the same as caddr, and so on.
    Note that the ordinal numbering used here is
    one-origin, as opposed to the zero-origin
    numbering used by nth:

    (fifth x) == (nth 4 x)

    setf may be used with each of these functions
    to store into the indicated position of a list.


    [Function]
    rest list

    rest means the same as cdr but mnemonically
    complements first. setf may be used with rest
    to replace the cdr of a list with a new value.

Lisp Machine Lisp had FIRST, SECOND, ... REST1, ..., REST4 at least in 1979. They are documented in the 2nd edition Lisp Machine manual.