Namecoin Forum

I see both terms used, and there appears to be a distinction but I'm not even sure.

There are functions in namecoind like getaddressesbyaccount and getaccountaddress which suggest there is a distinction and a mapping.

Also, there are functions like listreceivedbyaddress which list an array of addresses, each address possessing an optional account field.

All the "account" commands go back to Satoshi Nakamoto's idea for the Bitcoin client that they should help organizing your Bitcoin addresses (or here: Namecoin addresses). It turned out, however, that it wasn't very helpful in real life but is instead a confusing or even misleading feature.
In one of the future software versions this "accounting" system will be removed completely. If you've already divided your addresses into different "accounts" don't worry. This fragmentation will simply disappear, and you'll have access to your homogenous set of addresses just like before.