The word "Liberalism" came to mean something much akin to socialism, in the US, whereas socialism is the very anti-thesis of classical liberalism - this has very much to do with the history of political parties, and little to do with the classical liberal tradition of thinkers: In the 1930s, collectivist ideologies were so strong that there remained very few classical liberals who didn't adulterate their views with some kind of [welfare state]?, and those who remained true to the tradition mostly wouldn't get to express their opinions in public - so the so-called "neo-liberals" of the day were actually welfare-statists. Later, when it became impossible to publicly call oneself socialist or communist in the US, socialist-minded people would call themselves "Liberals" after this kind of liberalism, but without ever sharing anything in common with the classical liberal tradition. Real classical liberals would then come to call themselves libertarians to distinguish themselves from such "left-liberals".
Outside the US, the word "liberal", when applied to ideologies, usually continues to stand for classical liberalism. However, it is sometimes adulterated by the existence of political parties (usually conservative) that stand by the name "liberal", so people also specify "classical liberal" so as to identify their tradition of thought.
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