Within the Queen’s Court, the dark elves are referred to by the name they use for themselves, the Silver Folk. Outside the Court, the use of the term Silver Folk is extremely polite, or ironic. Most surface dwellers refer to them as dark elves or drow, interchangeably.
Dark elves are not uniformly evil. Drow society varies from entirely evil to merely cruel. That said, it’s almost a point of pride among dark elves that some of the world’s greatest villains have come from their race, to the point that even a goodly hearted drow may end up arguing that her race’s despotic overlord was far more powerful than another race’s former tyrant.