• More than a third of those surveyed (36 percent) erroneously thought that the Texas compound was part of the LDS Church.

• 6 percent said the two groups were partly related.

• 29 percent correctly said the two groups were not connected at all.

• 29 percent were not sure.

Still, asking media to refrain from using the term "Mormon fundamentalist" could be problematic for the church, according to Jan Shipps, professor emeritus of history and religious studies at Indiana University-Purdue University, who has long researched the LDS Church.

"There's a difference in tradition and in legal terms," she said. "They may have a legal claim to the word 'Mormon,' but the fact is that Mormonism is a tradition, and a legal claim cannot take away from other Mormon churches — of which there are many — calling themselves Mormon. It simply cannot do it."

Shipps points to an active group of "restoration churches" that broke away from the main body of the LDS Church in the 19th century, including The Church of Christ Temple Lot in Independence, Mo.; The Church of Jesus Christ (Cutlerites); The Church of Jesus Christ (Bickertonites); the Restoration Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints; and the Remnant Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, in addition to the Community of Christ (formerly the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints) as groups that fall within the "Mormon" tradition.

"Mormonism is a new religious tradition, not just the LDS Church," she said. "There are lots of forms of Mormonism. The LDS Church does not own the name of the tradition. It owns the name of its church." The analogy is that no one church owns the label "Christian," she said, though many Christian churches have tried to define Latter-day Saints as non-Christians — something LDS leaders have rejected.

The battle over who has the right to be called by what term has long roots within the LDS faith, she said. "All through the 19th century, the LDS Church headquartered in Salt Lake City was arguing in the press with the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints headquartered in Independence, Mo.

"There were long articles in periodicals written by the prophet of the RLDS Church and by the prophet of the LDS Church arguing about who was the legitimate church to come out of the Mormon movement."

Shipps said she's sympathetic to the latest incarnation of that discussion. "The LDS Church is trying to protect itself — and I understand what they're dealing with, because it's terrible that people think this (polygamy) is what's going on in the Utah church, but on the other hand, when something is a tradition, it's just a tradition."