Back in the early days, before Minecraft left beta behind, Sugar Canes were known as Reeds beneath the glorious shades of the ancient traditions of "Seriously, pick a name and stick with it so we know what on earth you're talking about."
In all seriousness, they were called Reeds when they were first added to the game, and sometimes you'll hear players like Etho call them Reeds because they were around for the beta era.