“Whole-note rest” etc. might well be word padding, but where did this usage come from? I’ve never heard musicians use it, don’t find it in standard music reference books, nor in Wikipedia. And apparently it’s not German or French either. Its like a literal translation of British terminology and appears in a few websites.
To my mind it’s an extension of the ridiculous American taxonomy for notes. Please leave us Brits out of this - we use crotchets and quavers.
Agree. As an American, I hear “x-note rest” all too often, and it sounds ignorant to me (which is what I was going to say that in my first response but edited it out). Another sloppy Americanism in music, along with “crescendoing”…
If you are hearing if often, Mark, it may be a recent phenomenon. It’s not the only such problem that one hears now. My wife and I cringe at some of this stuff.
I was simply reporting that “whole-note rest” sounds like a literal translation of “semibreve rest” and thought that might have caused the OP to use the terminology since the OP might not be a native speaker of English.
The American note and rest system is an exact translation of the German system, which I certainly don’t think is ridiculous, any more than the British system. And I avoid using words like “ridiculous” in posts, since it can sound insulting.
…I am so sorry for triggering a linguistic discussion by not researching the proper names before posting… 
Actually …
I don’t see what’s confusing about these. That’s what I call them.
I don’t see why this thread has gone on so long. Surely, considering the scope of things this site deals with to help folks with Dorico, these distinctions seem trivial.