My problem with "endian" is the overloaded definition of the word "end" (does a 1-dimensional object have 2 ends or 1 start and 1 end?), and the ambiguity about whether you're talking about the "end" of the number or the "end" of the segment of memory. If you take "end" to mean "the end of the memory segment" (as opposed to the start) then the two definitions are the wrong way round. I think something like "big-first" and "little-first" would have been much more intuitive.