In the ol' US of A "quaver" means an unsteady note or maybe a trill You may be correct that the word can mean "eight note", but why not just say that? The point of using words is to communicate and "quaver", if used at all, is probably considered archaic.

I've been told that Clarence White and others used DDU-DDU-DU for "eight beats to the bar" flatpicking. Very much like a Cha Cha.