hmm...

An excerpt from the 1888 Chambers's Encyclopedia of Universal Knowledge:

METHODISTS
METHODISTS, the name originally given, about the year 1729, by a student of Christ-church, to the brothers Wesley, and several other young men of a serious turn of mind, then members of different colleges of Oxford, who used to assemble together on particular nights of the week chiefly for religious conversation. The term was selected, it is believed, in allusion to the exact and methodical manner in which they performed the various engagements which a sense of Christian duty induced them to undertake, such as meeting together for the purpose of studying Scripture, visiting the poor, and prisoners in Oxford jail, at regular intervals.

Read more here.

I don't know that I have any commentary to go along with this, but it is very thought provoking for me.