How to name an algorithm in a paper

When you first refer to it say something like "the Algorithm proposed by (Xia, et al. 2008) which we refer to as XAB" where you replace XAB with the first letters of the authors' last names in the order that they appear in the bibliography. So if the authors are Xia, Alpha, Beta, you would use XAB. If the authors are Xia, Yen, Ping, you would use XYP. I wouldn't use more than about the first 3 or 4 author's last names, however.

This way if you are referring to multiple algorithms, you can give a clear reference to each. If it turns out that multiple algorithms you are referencing would have the same name given this scheme, you can also throw in the last two digits of the year. So you would have XAB08 and XAB09.

If you're going to be referencing a single critical algorithm in your paper, I recommend that you simply restate it with a citation, and then reference it by number as you would any other algorithm:

...the algorithm devised by Bob and Joe [ref]:

       a^2 + b^2 = c^2        (1)

Now, if we assume a^2 is a cat, then (1) can be extended as follows...