Control one light with two buttons
Like this:







simulate this circuit &ndash; Schematic created using CircuitLab

The switch is normally referred to as Single-Pole Double-Throw. (SPDT)
(I had to look that up as it is called different in my native language) 

This in contrast to a standard on/off switch which is called Single-Pole Single-Throw (SPST). 

As you can imagine there are many other types like. Double-Pole Single-Throw and Double-Pole Double-Throw.