Most of the times the "silly words" (and I agree they are silly) are bestowed upon the team by the org. In theory DD's team was the third best team in her age group in the org so they got the "Gold" distinction. However the Premier team (the second "best" team) disbanded after this season and DD's team was just good as them (and comparable to the "National" team) so they will probably be "Premier" this year...not sure what I think about that tbh.
Yeah, I do understand that the individual team (and certainly the parents) doesn't/don't have much control over if their team gets the "Gold" title.
I didn't know Premier > Gold. I need a decoder ring.