I like the name "Mana Clash" better. Is it too late to change the name of the game back to "Mana Clash?"

It was only Mana Clash for a tiny sliver of time before the game came out. (The first press release used the name.) I think Richard made the correct choice though to go with “Magic”. : )

What does the titular "Gathering" in MTG mean?

When Richard first made the game, he called it Magic. The name was too basic to trademark so the name was changed to Mana Clash. Everyone kept calling it Magic so they looked into what they needed to do to call it Magic.The answer was to add something to it to make it more unique. Richard chose “The Gathering” as a sub name signifying the beginning as the plan was to keep changing the sub names. The next version would be called Magic: Ice Age.And that is how “The Gathering” got added.

Can you give any insight to the naming of Magic: The Gathering. Was there a lot more emphasis in the early days on the "Gathering" bit? Today it seems like we just sort of gloss over the actual name of MTG without thinking about it. Does "Gathering" refer to the gathering of players or the gathering of the creatures and things within the game? Is it a reference to an actual event: "The Gathering". Reminds me a lot of the Highlander, actually...

Here’s the story. Richard had always wanted to call the game Magic but there was a lot of worry that legally Wizards couldn’t have control of the name because it was too broad.   At first they decided to change the name of the game to Mana Clash but everyone soon realized that the game just wanted to be called Magic. That meant that they had to add something to modify it. Richard liked the idea of this being the beginning, so he added “The Gathering”. The original plan was that the next year the game would change again and become Magic: Ice Age. Each year it would get a new moniker. That didn’t work out as Magic: The Gathering stuck and just became the fulltime name.