When is a cupcake a cupcake?

I follow lots of other cupcake blogs and i am a recipe book & website junkie! I have a large collection of beautiful recipe books of which some are in different languages, French, German & Gaelic!! Often i have to translate both language and measurements! It is a lot of fun though. However the one thing that doesn't tend to translate or have any sense of logic is what makes a cupcake a cupcake not a muffin or a patty cake, then throw in Texas muffins and mini muffins, just to confuse even the most even-tempered chef. I feel that i must comment after making 70 cupcakes over the weekend using 3 different recipes. I made 24 of my devil's foodcake recipe, which is adapted from an old American recipe book. It should have made 30, when filled to 3/4 of the paper casing. Another gluten-free recipe should have made only twelve but could have easily made 16!
So, does size matter or is it a case of, what i have always been suspicious of, it's all about the topping??? Personally i'll quite happily look at a cupcake for a long time, maybe photograph it & then eat it, devouring it, pretty quickly!