It's a "pull request" because you're asking someone to pull a commit from your branch/repo into theirs. You're quite literally making a request. This actual ch

It's a "pull request" because you're asking someone to pull a commit from your branch/repo into theirs. You're quite literally making a request. This actual change could be anything. You could just as well provide them as a patch they could apply by hand. The only formal aspects of the process, e.g. reviews and tests, are organizational. As an organization the acceptance of a pull request doesn't need a bunch of reviews and tests associated.