===Rune NamesName Evolution===There are five types of runes in Diablo 3. Their names have changed at least twice during development. The original names were very straight-forward, describing what the runes did. They then changed to a slightly evocative set of names, but that proved too limiting when their functions were overhauled in early 2010, and the names changed again, to their current substance/mineral/color names.

The names of the Runestones have changed at least twice during development. The original names were very straight-forward, describing what the runes did. They were then changed to a more evocative set of names, which proved too limiting when their functions were overhauled in early 2010, when the names were changed again, to their current color-based names.  The list below traces their name changes over time, left to right, from the earliest to the current.

 ===Rune Name Evolution===Blizzard's Diablo 3 community manager Bashiok shed some light on the reason for the mineral/substance name changes latest change in 2010:<ref>[http://diablo.incgamers.com/blog/comments/skill-runes-continue-to-evolve/ Bashiok forum post] - IncGamers May, 2010</ref>

::'''Bashiok:''' ...the purpose of renaming them was... to remove a strict theme. I’m not aware of any rune effects we’ve shown being removed, - I think all those still exist just the way they were shown. Just instead of multi-strike/hydra, it’s called Indigo, and while for a lot of skills it still has a very 'multi-strike ' theme, it’s not a rule dictated by the name.