Hello,
For HC08 it is difficult to say, a lot of people call them "08's" but as it is an old family, I don't see much benefit to eliminate HC08 as it keeps letter to clearly identify we talk about FSL MCU.
But for the newer parts, HC is redundant and confusing also (because people drop the "S" sometimes).
I would need to find someone in 8-bit to do the cleaning on FSL side...
The MC is usually safe to drop because very little people work with prototypes, noted PC.
MC means fully qualified.
PC means engineering samples.
XC (obsolete) means prototype.
Then, the 9 can usually be omitted because of the context.
9 means flash,
3 means ROM,
7 means OTP.
Alban.