The name of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) is derived from an 1838 revelation received by church founder Joseph Smith. Leaders of the LDS Church place great emphasis on the full name of the church and have resisted the application of informal or shortened names, including the "Mormon Church", the "LDS Church", and the "Church of the Latter-day Saints".
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Historical names of the church
The LDS Church traces its founding to April 6, 1830, when Joseph Smith and five other men formally established the Church of Christ. The church was known by this name from 1830 to 1834.
In the 1830s, the fact that a number of churches of the Restoration Movement, including the Campbellites, were also named the "Church of Christ" caused a considerable degree of confusion. In May 1834, the church adopted a resolution that the church would be known thereafter as "The Church of the Latter Day Saints". At various times the church was also referred to as "The Church of Jesus Christ", "The Church of God", and "The Church of Christ of Latter Day Saints".
Adoption of the current name
In the late 1830s, Smith founded a new headquarters in Far West, Missouri. At Far West on April 26, 1838, Smith recorded a revelation from God renaming the organization the "Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints". The church was known by this name until after Smith's death in 1844; occasionally the name would be written with a hyphen between the words "Latter" and "Day".
After Smith's death, competing Latter Day Saint denominations organized under the leadership of a number of successors. The largest of these, led by Brigham Young, continued using "Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints" until incorporation in 1851 by the legislature of the provisional State of Deseret, when the church standardized the spelling of its name as "The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints", which included a hyphenated "Latter-day" and a British-style lower-case "d". In January 1855, the legislature of Utah Territory re-enacted the charter which incorporated the church under this name.
In 1876, the LDS Church issued a new edition of the Doctrine and Covenants, which contains the text of significant revelations received by Joseph Smith. In this new edition—the first revision since before Smith's death—the capitalization and hyphenation of the church's name in the 1838 revelation to Smith was changed to reflect the name format the church had since adopted:
"[A]nd unto all the elders and people of my Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, scattered abroad in all the world; For thus shall my church be called in the last days, even The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints."
Until the late-20th century, church publications inconsistently capitalized the word "The" in the name of the church in running text. Today, church publications invariably capitalize the "The" in all contexts.
Today, "The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints" is a registered trademark owned by the LDS Church. In contrast, "Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints" is a public-domain name and is used by some smaller Latter Day Saint denominations, including the Strangites.
Meaning of the name
The church teaches that its name is a significant indicator of its origin and mission. The following teachings have been given on the meanings of the various components of the church's name:
Informal and abbreviated names
Since its founding, church leaders have resisted attempts to apply informal or abbreviated names to the LDS Church. Because of the belief in the Book of Mormon among Joseph Smith's followers, in the 1830s people outside the church began to refer to its members as "Mormonites" or "Mormons" and the church as the "Mormon Church". Smith and other church leaders considered these terms to be derogatory and inappropriate. Concerning these names, a church newspaper editorialized in 1834:
"Others may call themselves by their own, or by other names, and have the privilege of wearing them without our changing them or attempting so to do; but we do not accept the above title, nor shall we wear it as our name, though it may be lavished out upon us double to what it has heretofore been."
Today, it remains common for individuals and media outside of the church to refer to it as the "Mormon Church". Media in Utah—including the church-owned Deseret News, KSL-TV, and KSL radio—tend to use "LDS Church" as a short form of the church's name.
Church leaders have resisted these practices and have instructed the members of the church to not refer to the church in these ways. In 2001, the church issued a "style guide" on its name in which it requested that those writing about the church adhere to the following guidelines:
"In the first reference, the full name of the Church is preferred: 'The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints'. Please avoid the use of 'Mormon Church', 'LDS Church' or the 'Church of the Latter-day Saints'. When a shortened reference is needed, the terms 'the Church' or 'the Church of Jesus Christ' are encouraged."
The New York Times reported that the release of the style guide recommendations was a "'deliberate reaffirmation' of a long effort in favor of wider use of the church's full title". Apostle Dallin H. Oaks told the Times that "church leaders decided it was possible to begin using the abbreviated name of Church of Jesus Christ because no other major Christian body in the United States had laid claim to it." Jan Shipps, an expert on the LDS Church, suggested that the continuing efforts of the church to emphasize its full name reflects the long-standing desire of members of the church that their beliefs "be understood as a Christian tradition."
In general, media have not implemented the suggestion to use "Church of Jesus Christ" as a shorthand name for the LDS Church.