Early followers were called The Religious Society of Friends Seeking the Truth. Those who gave ministry were filled with new found religious fervor.

They were also often nervous untrained speakers who gained a reputation for trembling when they spoke. A judge who disliked religious dissenters called some of them "Quakers" as he sentenced them to jail for speaking against the established church.

The name stuck despite its derogatory connotation. It became a badge of authenticity representing the sincerity of the ministry of one "filled with the Spirit of the Lord." It remains affectionately in our vocabulary. We are also commonly referred to simply as Friends.