There is a way to both utilize and customize your order status titles. From the Admin Panel go to "Localization" then "Orders Status". You can then edit or delete any existing order status titles that are listed or add (insert) new ones. I currently use:

Shipped- for items shipped and order closed
Order Update- when I want to add a comment but not close the order.
Back Ordered- for backorders
Order Cancelled- for cancelled orders

Once you update your orders with one of the order status remarks, that's what shows up on your customer order list, so you can easily see at a glance the status of all your orders.