Well, that part at least is correct; the Hebrew is yam suf, the sea of reeds; "Red Sea" originally appeared in English not as a mistranslation, but simply as a typo for "Reed Sea."
A new monk arrived at the monastery. He was assigned to help the other monks in copying the old texts by hand. He
noticed, however, that they were copying copies, not the original books. The new monk went to the head monk to ask
him about this. He pointed out that if there were an error in the first copy, that error would be continued in all of
the other copies.The head monk said, 'We have been copying from the copies for centuries, but you make a good point, my son.' The head
monk went down into the cellar with one of the copies to check it against the original.Hours later, nobody had seen him, so one of the monks went downstairs to look for him. He heard a sobbing coming from
the back of the cellar and found the old monk leaning over one of the original books, crying.He asked what was wrong.
'The word is celebrate, not celibate!' sobbed the head monk.
My parochial school memory is that of the Reed Sea, having had a steady wind when the Israelites crossed, the somewhat
dried mud supporting the psi of human feet, but not of the Pharoh's pursuing chariots' wheels and horses'(camels?) hooves.
That was one of the practical theories posited at the time, any way.
2. What is the Hebrew for "Red Sea," then? I b'lieve the same expression can refer to either.
Dan