No ancient trader ever travelled the "Silk Road".
The name was coined by the German geographer Ferdinand von Richthofen, who popularised it in 1877 after seven journeys to China. Contemporaries knew neither the word nor the idea of one single route. The term only caught on in the 20th century, helped by Sven Hedin's 1938 book "The Silk Road".
Useful: Some period labels are inventions of later scholars, not names people used for themselves.
Source: en.wikipedia.org