Terms like "alto lute" or "alto viol" are periodically floated and usually do not gain traction, however, this is simply a modern terminology phenomenon. Alto recorder did very well; on the other hand, male alto--now replaced by the more resplendent sounding "countertenor"--has pretty much disappeared.
Several professional archlute players changed the name of their instruments from "archlute" to "theorbo" when the theorbo became more in demand from the hiring point of view--they didn't change instruments, just names. At one point, when it looked like "arciliuto" might gain traction, several changed to "arciliuto", then back again to "archlute" and "theorbo". You can see the trail reflected in CD liner notes. I sort of liked "arciliuto" myself--more historical and with that international flair. Does not rhyme with "hirsute" as well. And of course Shakespeare's famous line "a rose by any other name would smell as sweet" was originally "a rose by any other word", which avoids the careless repetition of the "word name": What's in a name? That which we call a Rose By any other Word would smell as sweet. dt To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
