The Huguenots (/ˈhjuːɡənɒt/ or /huːɡəˈnoʊ/; French: [yɡˈno], [yɡəˈno]) were members of the Protestant Reformed Church of France during the 16th and 17th centuries. French Protestants were inspired by the writings of John Calvin in the 1530s, and they were called Huguenots by the 1560s. By the end of the 17th century, roughly 200,000 Huguenots had been driven from France during a series of religious persecutions. They relocated to Protestant nations, such as England, Wales, Denmark, Switzerland, the Dutch Republic, the Electorate of Brandenburg, Electorate of the Palatinate (both in the Holy Roman Empire), and the Duchy of Prussia, and also to the Dutch Cape Colony in present-day South Africa and the English 13 colonies of North America.

A term used originally in derision, Huguenot has indefinite origins. Various theories have been promoted. The nickname may have been a French corruption of the German word Eidgenosse, meaning "a Confederate", perhaps in combination with a reference to the religious leader and politician Besançon Hugues (died 1532). Geneva was John Calvin's adopted home and the center of the Calvinist movement. In Geneva, Hugues was the leader of the "Confederate Party", so called because it favoured an alliance between the city-state of Geneva and the Swiss Confederation. This theory of origin has support from the alleged fact that the label Huguenot was first applied in France to those conspirators (all of them aristocratic members of the Reformed Church) involved in the Amboise plot of 1560: a foiled attempt to transfer power in France from the influential House of Guise. The move would have had the side effect of fostering relations with the Swiss. Thus, Hugues plus Eidgenosse became Huguenot, a nickname associating the Protestant cause with politics unpopular in France.