No idea what they were called before if it wasn't leggings or leg wraps -- but I remember my Dad, a first lieutenant in WWI, had very stiff and shiny leather puttees as part of his uniform that were buckled on.
In "Captain Corelli's Mandolin" there is a telling description of the effect winter has on wrapping-type puttees ... the ice, snow,freezing and thawing. Enlisted men hated them.