The number designations for S&W revolvers did not come into public use till 1957, if memory serves. Before that time, the number designations were used only internally, and S&W revolvers all had public names like "Centennial", "Masterpiece" and, yes, "Highway Patrolman". There was definitely a .357 Magnum Highway Patrolman - I toted one. And they were in widespread use by police officers, together with Colt Pythons & S&W Model 27's (orig. just called ".357 Magnum") even in jurisdictions that'd only allow them to load 158 gr. LRN .38's. Everybody I knew packed at least a few magnum loads for really messy situations.
When the numbering system came into public use sometime in '57, both the model name and number were used, then later just the number; thus the Highway Patrolman became the Hwy. Ptmn. Model 28, the Military & Police became the Model 10 M&P, the K-38 Masterpiece the Model 14 and so on.
I learned the S&W models by name back when there were not about a jillion S&W revolver models around. Now if somebody mentions a model number to me and it's not one of the really common ones, I have to look it up - but I can still identify the old ones by name.