The Red Sea in the Old Testament

The red sea is actually a long branch of the indian ocean that runs up the eastern coast of egypt, between it and the arabian peninsula. In the hebrew bible, the term for the body of water they cross is yam suf. So how did it become translited red sea? One current suggestion is that the reed sea was a name for the balala s near the modern suez canal. And in the roman period, the name for this area was abu sefe.