Board Thread:Skyrim/@comment-12599067-20130928060857/@comment-13446185-20131003030236

I believe I know the reason why the Ayleids aren't called Aylmer (or something like that).

I'm pretty sure that in Daggerfall there really wasn't actual names for the elven races. They were simply called High Elves, Dark Elves, and Wood Elves.

The Wild Elves (Ayleids) were the first to be actually given a name, which is written in the book The Wild Elves. So there wasn't really any type of name that needed to be followed  such as Dunmer, Dwemer, Altmer, etc.

"the original inhabitants of the land are the Ayleids, commonly called the Wild Elves."

Also it seems as though the creators may have originally intended to have different names for the Elven races.

"While three races of elven stock, Salache (or High), Boiche (or Wood), and Moriche (or Dark) have assimilated well to the new cultures of Tamriel,"

Though these may just be translations into the Ayleidic language.