Misnomer
Bubble sort has incorrectly been called sinking sort. Sinking sort is correctly an alias for insertion sort. This error is largely due to the National Institute of Standards and Technology listing sinking sort as an alias for bubble sort. In Donald Knuth's The Art of Computer Programming, Volume 3: Sorting and Searching he states in section 5.2.1 'Sorting by Insertion', that "settles to its proper level" this method of sorting has often been called the sifting or sinking technique. Furthermore the larger values might be regarded as heavier and therefore be seen to progressively sink to the bottom of the list, leading to the misnomer.
To clarify we can also observe the behaviour of the two algorithms. In bubble sort, the larger bubbles (higher values) bubble up displacing the smaller bubbles (lower values). Insertion on the other hand, sinks each successive value down to its correct location in the sorted portion of the collection.
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