Identification of the skeletal muscle calcium release channel protein, ryanodine receptor-1 (RYR1), in 1988 and causative variations in its gene, RYR1, in 1991 led to the association of impaired calcium homeostasis with muscle dysfunction. Ryanodine receptor 1-related congenital myopathies (RYR1-RM) are histopathologically and clinically heterogeneous, rare, slowly-progressive neuromuscular disorders. Estimated to affect 1:90,000 children in the US, causative RYR1 variants lead to dysfunctional RyR1-mediated Ca2+ release, elevated oxidative stress and deleterious post-translational modifications. Clinically, RYR1-RM affected individuals can present with a diverse symptomatology ranging from delayed motor milestones, contractures, and scoliosis to ophthalmoplegia and respiratory insufficiency. Historically, RYR1-RM were diagnosed and named based on histopathologic features on muscle biopsy, such as central core disease in 1956, core-rod myopathy in 1965, centronuclear myopathy in 1966, congenital fiber type disproportion in 1969, and multi-minicore disease in 1971. These histopathologic features are non-specific and dynamic over time, may vary based on biopsy site, and may not be present when biopsy is performed at an early age. As additional phenotypic subtypes are associated with RYR1 variations due to advances and availability of genetic testing (Evans myopathy, first described in 1960; King-Denborough syndrome in 1973; exercise-induced rhabdomyolysis in 2000; atypical periodic paralysis with or without myalgia in 2018), the clinical and histopathologic overlap among RYR1-RM diagnostic categories is increasing. With the continuing emergence of new subtypes on the RYR1-RM spectrum and reports of adult-onset phenotypes, nuanced nomenclatures have been reported (RYR1- [related, related congenital, congenital] myopathies). We present historical accounts of the main diagnostic subtypes and propose revisiting the nomenclature of phenotypes with RYR1 genetic etiology, which, based on clinicopathological overlap, are shades of the same disorder.