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Names -> Band Name Origins -> Latest Entries
Do you know why a band picked out it's name? Feel free to let us know.
I can't verify all of these stories, so do take them with a grain of salt. I try and delete the ones that I know to be bogus, but I don't know the origins of every band name (and some bands intentionally tell different stories about picking their band name).
Latest Entries
The 20 most recent entries are listed below. There are 4772 Band Name Origin entries on the site.
Name | Origin | Submitted by: | ||
| Walk The Moon | The band members have said it's taken directly from the title of The Police song, Walking On The Moon. They just shortened it some for their band name. | Edward | ||
| AJR | The initials of the three member; Adam, Jack, and Ryan Met | Insertnamehere | ||
| Three 6 Mafia | The group came up with the name as a reference to the "number of the beast" 666 in keeping with their image as a horrorcore rap collective. | Joe Barbaro | ||
| The Weeknd | His name derives from an incident in his childhood where he dropped out of school and moved from home - essentially, leaving one weekend and never coming back. The omission of the third "e" was due to a band from his province of Ontario taking that name. | Dominicmgm | ||
| AlunaGeorge | From the first names of the two members of the band, Aluna Francis and George Reid. | JohnHowarth | ||
| Imagine Dragons | They claim that it's anagram of another name idea they had, which they refuse to reveal | dayna | ||
| The Sounds | The Sounds are from Helsigborg, Sweden, on the southwest coast of the country. The famous narrow body of water between Helsingborg and Denmark is called the Öresund (sound). In English, people just generally call it The Sound. | Kirk | ||
| MKTO | It was formed out of the initials of the two members - Malcolm Kelley and Tony Oller. | Dongquan | ||
| !!! | The name comes from the subtitles for the movie "The Gods Must Be Crazy", where one of the tribe's clicking noises were subtitled "!!!". | dominicmgm | ||
| Tuscadero | American indie rock band that formed in the Washington D.C. area and was together from 1993-1999. They took their name from a female Happy Days character named Leather Tuscadero. Leather Tuscadero was played by actress/singer/musician Suzi Quatro. Quatro scored the top 10 hit duet Stumblin' In with Chris Norman. Norman had been the lead singer of the British pop band Smokie. | Edward | ||
| The Aquanettas | All woman, four member rock band that was together from 1987 to 1995. Apparently they got the band name from the name of an actress, Burnu Acquanetta. | Edward | ||
| Thirty Seconds to Mars | According to the Wikipedia page, the band took their name from a rare manuscript titled Argus Apocraphex | dayna | ||
| Gary Numan | Gary Webb wanted a showbiz but futuristic name. 'Gary Numan' is a spelling change to reflect the sci-fy/cyberpunk idea of a 'new man', so his stage name 'Numan' is really a spelling of 'New Man'. And he plays synthesizers which in 1980 was a trait of a 'new wave' of rock'n'roll. | I Drive Cars | ||
| 10CC | One of the members jacked off into a test tube and this is how much sperm came out into the tube. | Bigg Jacky-O | ||
| Teach-In | A "teach-in" is a form of college campus protest from the 60's, in which faculty and invited guests hold a lengthy, uniterrupted series of lectures, speeches, and the like, usually dealing with controversial topics, or to protest government policies. | RJSchex | ||
| Sparks | According to IMDB, it's a play on the Marx Brothers | mads. | ||
| Drake | His birth name is Aubrey Drake Graham so he claims that he just took his middle name and made it his stage name | dayna | ||
| DJ Bobo | After "Bobo, the escape king". | mads | ||
| Patrick Lew Band (PLB) | The band Patrick Lew Band (stylized as PLB) apparently got their name randomly during a private studio recording session. The band underwent many temporary bandnames such as Famiglia, Samurai Sorcerers, Band of Asians and etc etc. Some time in August 2008, the band's frontman Patrick Lew left the recording studio one afternoon to grab lunch. Upon arriving back, he went on the computer inside the studio, logged onto his band's MySpace account, and wrote a blog confirming the band's name being changed to "Patrick Lew Band." Apparently, the name had no special meaning and it was randomly thought of while Patrick was writing the blog on his MySpace band page at the time. Eventually, the band would also be later shortly abbreviated as PLB. The band was intended as an outlet for Patrick Lew's musical works, with assistance from additional musicians. | Gabe | ||
| Danny Wilson | The band (yes it's a band and not a male solo singer) was originally named Spencer Tracy, named after the famous actor. They got a record deal and proceeded to record their first album. When they were about to release it, they and their record company were given notice by the late actor Spencer Tracy's estate that if they continued to call themselves "Spencer Tracy" the estate was going to sue them. So forced by the situation (and understandably from pressure from their record company) to quickly come up with a new band name, they chose Danny Wilson. They took it from a 1950s Frank Sinatra movie Meet Danny Wilson. Which was a favorite movie of the father of band members Gary Clark and Kit Clark. | Edward |
New entries in this section are currently reviewed by Brian Kelly. Previous editors (if any) are listed on the editors page.
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