What goes into a term? Unpacking Nazi Germany

Upon attending class in Germany, someone threw out the term Nazi Germany during our discussions. Obviously I heard this term before but for some reason this time was so interesting to me that I had a dozen questions for it. Why do we refer to Germany during WWII as Nazi Germany? There doesn't seem any real reason for it apart from its descriptive properties as being under the Nazi regime, but even then why Nazi? If we are referring to a period in time we can just as easily call it WWII Germany, Hitler's Germany, Third Reich Germany etc. Furthermore I;m sure that German's during the war did not cal themselves Nazi Germans, they called themselves Germans. Why specifically do we identify it with its ideological prescription? We should first try to unpack this term because it is so loaded its just crazy.

So much goes into this term that it is staggering and I have a feeling a very good paper can be written about it. First lets look at its spatial qualities and for me most interesting quality. Nazi Germany not only refers to a time in the past, defined by its ideology, but also very clearly a break from it. The term it self implies a break in German identity from the Nazi past and "normal' present. For if it did not there would not be a need to distinguish on such a basis. Then indeed one would be able to identify Germany on a historic basis as WWII Germany. However, this is interesting because defining Germany in such a was signals a deliberate break that must be made between its past and present. This deliberate juxtaposition is made between the self and other on a spatial level. But this also contains a lot historic and ideological conitation as well - this is unseprable