Which is worse — appropriating the name of a famous Quaker or one of your friends? It’s a tough one:

George Fox, the longtime pal whose name Eliot Spitzer allegedly adopted for his tryst with a prostitute, says the governor has personally apologized for “the unauthorized use of his name.”

“The news that his name may have been used as an alias comes as a great surprise and disappointment,” Fox, a high-powered hedge-fund manager, said in a statement yesterday.

Sources said Spitzer used Fox’s name to rent the room for his rendezvous at a Washington hotel.