What is the suboccipital nerve? Tracking this confusing historical nomenclature.

Since its initial description in the 2nd century, the suboccipital nerve has maintained a number of varying terminologies. Many of these terms were created in the 18th and 19th centuries to describe the first set of cervical spinal nerves that exited the spinal cord between the cranium and the atlas. Though the many terminologies have been reduced to mainly the suboccipital nerve, there are still two prevalent definitions used for this nerve. Herein, we discuss the history of the first spinal nerve and its branches with special attention to varying terminologies over time. Recent literature has described the suboccipital nerve as the entire nerve or as simply the dorsal ramus of the C1 spinal nerve. This interchangeability may lead to confusion about the specific part of the nerve being discussed. Following a review of the literature, we recommend the term C1 spinal nerve be applied to the entire nerve, whereas, suboccipital nerve be reserved solely for the posterior branch of the C1 spinal nerve.