why are vp's called vp's

Seriously tho, ranks should be more comprehensive, like in the military. Something like Scribe (Analyst), Forescribe/Scribeleader (Associate), Supervisor (VP), Director (as before), Managing Director (as before), maybe.

So that they sound impressive when you put them in front of clients.

I was made a "VP" at a very small boutique real estate investment bank when I was right out of MBA and clearly an associate or even sr. analyst. The reason was simple, the firm was small (a few partners, myself, two interns, and a few "rainmaker" types) and they wanted the groups we were raising money from to take my calls and respond to my emails. Also helped in front of clients. It was BS, but because all the BB firms and others do it..... well we had to!

CRE brokerage is even worse, CBRE will make anyone a VP. Not a joke, I walked into a large regional office for CBRE for a meeting and the receptionist had a desk plate giving her title as "VP of First Impressions", I looked at the office contact list, literally every broker had VP of some sort as their title (EVP, SVP, AVP, FVP, etc.). Now that VP is too "lowly", they give the top dogs the title of "chairman", they are no where close to being on the board!!!