SALT LAKE CITY — Not long after President Russell M. Nelson began leading the Church, he made an announcement that attracted a lot of attention, in which the Mormon name would be deemphasized.
"I did this because the Lord impressed upon my mind the importance of the name He decreed for His church. Even the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints," he said at the time.
Since the Church's beginnings in the 1800s, many people, including its own members, had referred to the church simply as the Mormon Church or by other nicknames. But Nelson felt those nicknames should be abandoned and the actual name of the church should be used both internally and externally.
"What's in the name, or in this case, a nickname? When it comes to nicknames of the Church, such as LDS Church, the Mormon Church or the Church of the Latter-day Saints, the most glaring omission is the absence of the Savior's name," Nelson said. "To remove the Lord's name from the Lord's Church is a major victory for Satan. When we discard the Savior's name, we are subtly disregarding all that Jesus Christ did for us, even His atonement."
How will LDS Church select new president to replace Nelson?
Discontinuing the use of nicknames meant changing the Church website URLs, printed materials, news media style guides, and many other elements.
Over time, the use of nicknames has stopped inside the Church and started to diminish outside as well.
