There is No Such Thing as the Mormon Church

The group of people that others call “Mormons” are actually members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. There never has been a “Mormon Church” and there never should be.
Early detractors of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints derogatorily labeled members of the Church as “Mormons” and the Church itself as the “Mormon Church” and the name stuck. It stuck so well in fact that even the Church members and leaders were for decades lulled into usage of these terms as a matter of course. Looking back we members of the Church can now see the gravity of the error committed in allowing and even promoting the usage of the terms “Mormon” and “Mormon Church”. Even the term “Mormonism” is a nonexistent entity. “Mormonism” is in reality is the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ or the fullness of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
So where did the term “Mormon” originate. The short answer is that is came from the title of “The Book of Mormon, Another Testament of Jesus Christ”, a book of scripture that was translated by the gift and power of God by His chosen prophet Joseph Smith, Jr. circa 1829. That explanation alone; however, gives short shrift to the fullness of the story that encompasses centuries, even millennia, of human existence whereby the origination of the term “Mormon” unfolded.
A reasonable starting point for our story begins with ancient Israel about 1600-1800BC. The ancient biblical patriarch Jacob pronounces a blessing and prophecy upon his son Joseph and Joseph’s posterity which announces that a branch of the descendants of Joseph will leave Israel and flourish in a distant land(Genesis 49:22-26).
In Jerusalem, about 600BC, a prophet by the name of Lehi, a contemporary of Jeremiah and a descendant of Joseph, is commanded by the Lord to take his family and others and flee into the wilderness. After years traveling the Arabian Peninsula Lehi’s band comes to rest in present day Oman possibly in the area around the present day city of Al Hadd. There the Lord instructs them in building a ship which they enter and sail east until coming to land somewhere on the western shores of the Americas.
This group becomes established in the new world, and after a time owing to family discord the group divides into major factions who are known as the Nephites and the Lamanites. The Lord sends prophets to these people just as he did in Israel. One of these prophets came to baptize people desiring to be followers of the coming Savior in what was called the waters of Mormon. This is where the word “Mormon” is first revealed. These civilizations existed near each other for about a thousand years, and they kept a record of the teachings of all the prophets sent to teach them the word of God. As we near the year AD 400 we are introduced to the prophet named Mormon who takes all these records and abridges and condenses them into a volume etched on metal plates with these words of God. These words are what is contained within the Book of Mormon. It was because of Mormon’s work on preserving sacred plates that the final abridged version came to be called the Book of Mormon. These plates were buried in the earth and did not come to light until 1823 when an angel named Moroni revealed them to the prophet Joseph Smith after Joseph had experienced his First Vision of both our Heavenly Father and His Son Jesus Christ and was called by them as the Prophet of the Restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
The Book of Mormon became a companion to the Bible and those outside the Church quickly associated the name Mormon with those who espoused the truth of the book and embraced their membership in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
In 1838 the Lord revealed to Joseph Smith that in these the latter days His church was to be called The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints(see Section 115 of the Doctrine and Covenants). Unfortunately the Church and its members were not zealous in insisting on the proper use of the true name of the Church. From time to time some apostles of the Church pointed out this issue and urged compliance with referring to the name of the Church the Lord had given, but with little effect. Finally in 2018 then President of the Church Russell M. Nelson called the Church to task on using the correct name of the Church. Media releases were given on this matter asking news outlets and the like to use the correct name of the Church. In addition the term Mormon was removed from all familiar places where it had commonly been found; for example, The Mormon Tabernacle Choir became the Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square; and mormon.org became churchofjesuschrist.org.; and others.
That in a nutshell is the chronology of the use of the term Mormon in the world to date.