It would seem to me it was for the ancients, however for the sake of dividing up lots for groups to dig the Egyptian government may have named it otherwise... I have posted this in the past but G. Reisner's work in 1903 (U.of Cal. Hearst Expedition) was published with interesting finds...

Records Of The Past (http://www.gizapyramids.org/static/pdf%20library/reisner_records_past_4_1905.pdf)

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...At Gizeh it was determined to clear the section of the great ceme- tery west of the mastaba known as Lepsius 23, the largest mastaba in the field. The huge bulk of this mastaba had caused the drift sand to bank up on its west side; and it seemed probable that the tombs under this thick covering of sand were less plundered than those in the district further west or than those nearer the pyramid.

THE EXCAVATION OF THE WADY CEMETERY

Before attacking this part it was necessary to find a suitable place on which to dump the rubbish excavated from the cemetery. The wady to the north was manifestly the most convenient spot. But we had first to find out what lay buried under the sand of the wady. There- fore, on December 9, 1903,having brought down 75 of our workmen fromKeft, we began cutting a number of holes, extending, at intervals of about 10meters, from the lowest part of the wady to the cliff mark- ing the northern edge of the great cemetery. At a depth of from 1 1/2 to 2 meters we came on the tops of rough structures of unhewn stone and of brick. The excavation of one of these showed an early type of small mastaba and accidentally revealed a still older mud-brick mastaba underneath. It was clear that it was necessary to excavate a section of this cemetery in order to obtain sufficient material to determine the date, the relation of this cemetery to the great cemetery, and the characteristics of its burial-customs and furniture. Therefore, the field railway having arrived, and also 50 more men from Keft, a large space 40x30 meters in area was cleared of sand. This work revealed a surface of decay, —i.e.a, surface formed in antiquity by the decay of the upper parts of the mastabas. The upper parts of the mastabas fell to pieces owing to the action of the weather and the debris filled in the spaces between the mastabas, forming a lumpy, uneven surface of broken walls and hard packed sandy mud. The surface of decay was broken by several long dumpheaps running down from the cliff above, which were manifestly formed by dirt being thrown over the cliff in clearing the plateau above for the construction of the large mastabas of the great cemetery.

Enough of the wady having been cleared for all practical purposes, and the extent of its cemetery having been ascertained by digging, the dumpheap of the main excavation was run as an embankment straight across the wady. Thus a number of graves which could only have added to the quantity of material obtained were covered up, probably for the benefit of a future generation of archaeologists.

THE MASTABAS OF THE WADY CEMETERY

The mastabas were found, as we had seen from the first, to be built on two levels of different periods, and to be of two corresponding types. The type of the older lower level is a small isolated single- burial mastaba, with two, usually simple, offering niches on the valley side. In front of the niches is a small court marked off by a low mud wall. The mastaba is built either of mud-brick or of small stones, well plastered with mud and coated with pink lime plaster. The later type, built on the level of the tops of the earlier type, is a larger mastaba of a construction similar to that of the earlier type. But the southern niche is usually compound; and the mastabas either contain more than one burial, or they are grouped in family complexes.
On cutting into the ancient dumpheaps described above, it was found that the mastabas of both types extended practically uninjured under these dumpheaps. The heaps themselves, though, of course, they are not uniform throughout, consist in general of an upper stratum of clean disturbed geological gravel, a middle stratum of decayed mud- brick (or plaster) and limestone chips, and a lower stratum of sandy dirt. Thus at a period subsequent to that of the wady cemetery the plateau above was cleared, and there was thrown over, first dirt, then the remains of structures of mud-brick and plastered stone, and finally the geological deposit from just above the solid rock. Furthermore, this clearing of the plateau was manifestly in preparation for the construction of Lepsius 23, which occupies a space 100meters long by 45 wide just above the wady cemetery.

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So, clearly the 4th dynasty builders of Lepsius 23 removed existing mastaba's and threw the materials over the northern plateau embankment into the wadi...atop two earlier levels of mastaba's... it would appear the ancients were active at the earliest of times (1st dynasty?) using the plateau and all the space around it for burials.

Best,

B.A.Hokom