Q:

Why not a 'params' array in Java main method? 

As a Java rookie, I understand that the values that I pass to a method are called the arguments and the variables that receive the values in the method definition are called parameters. 
Now, where ever I see a Java class written with main method, the method signature says 
public static void main(String args[])
{}
For eg.  http://download.oracle.com/javase/tutorial/java/nutsandbolts/arrays.html
Though I can give any variable names, wasn't it justifying if they had given params[] instead of args[]? 
Any theories? 

A:

There's no reason you couldn't call it whatever you wanted, honestly.  It's just convention to call it args.  I wouldn't recommend calling it anything but args, because that is what virtually every Java programmer expects.  But there's nothing that says you couldn't rename it. 
class BadArgs {
    public static void main(String params[]) {
        System.out.println(params[0]);
    }
}

C:\Documents and Settings\glowcoder\My Documents>javac BadArgs.java

C:\Documents and Settings\glowcoder\My Documents>java BadArgs Hello! 
Hello! 

A:

The name is appopriate.  args is a single parameter whose value is an array of command line arguments.  

A:

Firstly, this is a fairly canonical name in many languages.   e.g. in C, you normally see main defined as:
int main(int argc, char *argv[]);

(where argc is the count, and argv is an array of pointers to each argument).   Java mimics this. 
I can only guess as to why the canonical name is args and not params.   Perhaps it's because if you want to know e.g. the 0-th arg, you refer to args[0]?