I dont have much respect for any guitarists who actually call themselves shredders.

If you noticed, no shred guitarists really puts the word shred into any of their interviews, songs, or comments.

Though there are unfortunate counter-examples such as Joe Stump, Rusty Cooley, Micheal Angelo Batio, ect.

The name Shred came from viewers watching people like Van-Halen ripping through the fingerboard and it looks like their shredding off the wood of the neck.
(haha,If you apply this theory to any type of guitar, I guess blues players are called benders... :p )