Always put a pepperoni in the exact middle. It's like a wishbone, but for pizza. The person who gets the majority of the center pepperoni gets a wish.

You're thinking of peperoncino, a spiced chilli pepper also known as sweet Italian peppers. We still have salami in the US.

I'd guess pepperoni is called that because it's dried salami with pepper seasoning.

I found a link just randomly googling. https://www.thoughtco.com/you-say-pepperoni-3972377

Pepperoni and salami are totally different dude, you might as well be saying that Americans should just call their potatoes "yams". And you can get both of those sausages and many, many more on your pizza, often at the same time