The English renderings of a few things in Evangelion are odd. "Neon Genesis", for instance, is not what the shinseiki in Shinseiki Evangelion means--it means "new century"--but Neon Genesis Evangelion is the official English version of the show's title.
Similarly, zettai ryōiki really means something like "absolute boundary" or "absolute territory", not "absolute terror", but Absolute Terror Field is what they went with for the English kenning as it appears in the show. (That's also where the joke tag here on DB about the space between a miniskirt and thighhighs comes from.)