The term "catholic", meaning universal, was used very early. It wasn't used to distinguish the entity now often called the Catholic Church from other Christian groups, so far as I know, until much later.
I agree that some Christian groups have not-so-tendentious names, including "Protestant", "Anglican", "Episcopalian" and "Lutheran". (Though to my mind "Anglican" carries a certain implication of being the church for English people, and the Episcopalians aren't the only people with bishops any more than the Baptists are the only people who baptize.)
"Pentecostal" seems to me to be in (though not a central example of) the applause-light-name category. "We are the ones who are really filled with the Holy Spirit like in the Pentecost story in the Book of Acts".
"Gospel" and "Evangelical" are absolutely applause-light names. "Our group, unlike all those others, embodies the Good News" or "Our group, unlike all those others, is faithful to the Gospels". (The terms are kinda ambiguous between those two interpretations but either way these are we-are-the-best-rah-rah-rah names.)
Anyway, I didn't mean to claim that literally every movement's name is like this. Only that many many many movements' names are.
FWIW the Orthodox churches also use the term "catholic" when referring to themselves. Sometimes it is translated (as "universal"), but oftentimes it's kept in the original Greek. In some cases there are deliberate distinctions introduced to keep the two meanings apart: e.g. in Russian Church use, "Catholic" in the sense of Roman Catholic is "katolik" (mapping to Latin), while "catholic" in its original meaning of "universal" is "kafolik" (mapping directly to Greek).
I agree that some Christian groups have not-so-tendentious names, including "Protestant", "Anglican", "Episcopalian" and "Lutheran". (Though to my mind "Anglican" carries a certain implication of being the church for English people, and the Episcopalians aren't the only people with bishops any more than the Baptists are the only people who baptize.)
"Pentecostal" seems to me to be in (though not a central example of) the applause-light-name category. "We are the ones who are really filled with the Holy Spirit like in the Pentecost story in the Book of Acts".
"Gospel" and "Evangelical" are absolutely applause-light names. "Our group, unlike all those others, embodies the Good News" or "Our group, unlike all those others, is faithful to the Gospels". (The terms are kinda ambiguous between those two interpretations but either way these are we-are-the-best-rah-rah-rah names.)
Anyway, I didn't mean to claim that literally every movement's name is like this. Only that many many many movements' names are.