| | by admin | | posted on 19th December 2025 in Quakers Through the Ages | | views 42 | |
This is a chronological look at the names early Quakers used for themselves, the nicknames others gave them, and how 'Friends' became the enduring identity behind the formal title Religious Society of Friends.
The Quaker movement did not begin with a fixed title. In its earliest years, those gathered around George Fox were known by several names, some chosen from within and others applied from outside. These changing names reflect the movement’s growth from a small group of Seekers into a recognised religious society, and reveal how early Friends understood themselves long before the wider world learned what to call them.
In the 1640s, the people who would later be called Quakers did not think of themselves as a sect or denomination. They understood themselves as individuals who had turned toward the inward Light of Christ and begun to live under its guidance. Their identity was spiritual and experiential rather than organisational.
Early references speak of being “in the Truth” or “gathered to Christ.” These phrases describe a condition rather than a membership. Naming, at this stage, mattered far less than faithfulness.
One of the earliest and most meaningful self-descriptions was Children of the Light. Drawn from the language of the New Testament, this phrase expressed the belief that Christ’s Light was present inwardly and actively teaching those who turned toward it.
To call oneself a Child of the Light was to describe a way of living: truthfully, plainly, peaceably, and under continual inward examination. The phrase appears frequently in early letters and testimonies and reflects the movement’s earliest theological centre.
By around 1647, a new form of address began to appear among George Fox and his companions. They started calling one another Friend, a usage rooted in Christ’s words, “You are my friends, if you do whatever I command you.”
This simple word carried weight. It rejected titles, hierarchy, and spiritual rank. It expressed equality, mutual accountability, and shared obedience to the Light. Over time, the fuller phrase Friends of the Truth was often shortened in everyday speech simply to Friends.
At this stage, “Friends” was not yet a formal organisational name, but it marked an important shift. The movement was beginning to recognise itself as a distinct gathered people bound together by shared experience and relationship.
As the movement spread through travelling ministry, further descriptive terms appeared. Early Friends sometimes referred to themselves as Publishers of Truth, emphasising their call to speak openly about what they had inwardly experienced.
These phrases described activity rather than identity. They reflected a reluctance to adopt a fixed label, consistent with the belief that true religion was lived rather than named.
The name Quaker did not arise from within the movement. According to George Fox’s Journal, the term appears in 1650 when Fox was brought before a magistrate in Derby. The judge mockingly referred to Fox and his companions as “Quakers,” commenting on their supposed trembling at the word of God.
This moment is often presented as the origin of the name, but it is more accurately understood as its first surviving written record. Derogatory nicknames for religious dissenters commonly circulated in spoken language before appearing in official documents. Given the visible intensity of early Friends’ spiritual experience, it is likely that “Quaker” was already being used informally before Fox’s appearance in court.
The Derby incident did not invent the term; it preserved it.
Although Friends did not choose the name Quaker, they did not actively resist it. Over time, they accepted it as a practical label used by others, even while continuing to refer to one another internally as Friends.
For several decades, multiple names existed side by side. Friends wrote of themselves as Children of the Light, Friends of the Truth, or simply Friends, while pamphleteers, officials, and critics increasingly used the term Quaker.
This coexistence reflects a tension at the heart of the movement: a people wary of outward labels, yet increasingly visible and impossible to ignore.
Only later did a settled formal name emerge. Although Friends had been calling one another “Friend” since the late 1640s, the full title The Religious Society of Friends did not appear suddenly or on a single agreed date.
Instead, it emerged gradually during the eighteenth century as meetings became more established and the need for clear, formal language increased. Early documents often referred simply to “our religious society,” with the fuller phrase appearing in official addresses and printed material later in the century.
By the time the name became standard, it functioned less as a declaration of belief and more as a practical description of a people already long gathered in the Light.
In the modern era, naming remains a living and sometimes delicate question among Quakers. The formal name The Religious Society of Friends continues to be used in official contexts, legal documents, and Yearly Meeting titles. It provides clarity, continuity, and a clear link to the movement’s long institutional history.
At the same time, many contemporary Quakers are comfortable using the shorter name The Society of Friends, particularly in informal writing, educational material, and interfaith settings. For some, this phrasing feels closer to the movement’s original emphasis on relationship rather than structure, and less burdened by institutional language. While it does not replace the formal title, it has become an accepted and widely understood alternative in practice.
Alongside this, the name Quaker has not only endured but has been consciously reclaimed and, in many cases, celebrated. Once a term of mockery, it is now used openly by Friends themselves and remains the most widely recognised public name for the movement. Many Quaker organisations, schools, publications, and meeting houses use the word deliberately, valuing its distinctiveness and historical depth.
For some Friends, “Quaker” speaks to witness and visibility - a name that connects present-day practice with a long tradition of peace testimony, social action, and principled dissent. For others, it carries a warmth and familiarity that the more formal title does not. Differences of preference remain, reflecting the diversity of modern Quakerism, but the name is no longer an embarrassment or an imposition.
In this way, contemporary Friends live with multiple names much as early Friends once did. Context determines usage, and no single title is insisted upon in all circumstances.
The story of how the Quakers got their name is not a straight line but a layered one. It moves from inward description to outward label, from lived experience to recorded history.
Children of the Light speaks of spiritual awakening.
Friends speaks of equality and shared obedience.
Quaker speaks of how the world first noticed them.
Together, these names tell the story of a movement that was named slowly, reluctantly, and often by others - yet remained rooted in the same inward conviction that first gathered it.