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Names -> Band Name Origins -> B, Page 1
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
Entries starting with B are split into multiple pages: 1 2 3 4 5
There are 4772 Band Name Origin entries on the site.
Name | Origin | Submitted by: | ||
| B*Witched | They were thinking of names & recording at the same time (since they were called either D*Zire or Sassy at the time) so one day, as they were recording, their manager (Ray "madman" Hedges) said they were "bewitching" so woila! B*Witched became their recording name! | Mel | ||
| B*Witched | The band members were watching the old TV show "Bewitched", when they thought it sounded like a good band name. As "Bewitched" was already taken, they settled for B*Witched. | NameMaster | ||
| The B-52's | This group were named after a hairstyle (apparently a bouffant wig) sported by Kate Pierson and Cindy Wilson, two of their primary members. | Bobo | ||
| B-52's | Named for the hair style that is named for the airplane. The "B-52" hair-do looks like the prominent nose of the B-52 bomber which was the latest and greatest during that [hairstyle] era. | Phil | ||
| The B-52's | The B-52's lead singers dad, died when he was 52 and name was Barry so they named the band in his honor. | NameMaster | ||
| The B-52s | The B-52s were named because of a dream that band member Keith Strickland had. He dreamed he was in a nightclub and onstage there was a woman with a bouffant wig playing the keyboard. In the dream, someone leant over to him and said `That's the B-52s'. B-52 was also slang for a beehive hairdo because it resembled the nose cone of a B-52 aeroplane. | Camille | ||
| The B-52s | A B-52 is a long-range, heavy bomber that's been around for more than forty years. I always thought the B-52s got their name from this. | Lizzie | ||
| B2K | The name B2K was picked by the band because of their debut album in 2000, which was the frenzy year of Y2K. So the boys decided to be B2K, which stands for 'Boys of the New Millenium'. Although many fans prefer to say it stands for 'Boys to Kiss'. | Tiarra Henderson | ||
| B2K | they liked the whole y2k thing but then they went through the alphabet and came up with B2K which means Boys of the Millenium | katie | ||
| B2K | B2k hit mainstram music around the time of th whole y2k scare. The B stands for boys 2k stands for millennium. Put it together and B2K = Boys of the New millennium. | J-boogs baby girl | ||
| B2K | Boys of the New Millennium.....first they thought of Y2K, then they went thru the alphabet and stopped at B (replacing the "Y" for "B") they came up with B2K. . .Boys of the New Millennium | NeNe | ||
| B44 | I saw this on an interveiw with them. There is three members, and 3 is before four, B44. | pinker | ||
| B5 | The last name was Breeding, and there are 5 of them. | cairothomas | ||
| B5 | They are all brothers and they're name first stood for Brothers 5, then they changed it to Breeding 5, like Jackson 5, or J5, so now it's B5!! | Neisha | ||
| B5 | Because their name last name is Breeding. That's where the b comes from and then 5 because it's five of them (Dustin, Kelly Patrick,Carnell, and Bryan). | Diamond | ||
| Baaher Meinhof | Named after the Baader-Meinhof Gang, a German terrorist group from the 70's intertwined with the RAF and SPK. | Bobo | ||
| Babes in Toyland | The name of a 1934 Laurel and Hardy movie, a 1961 Disney production and a stage show | Bobo | ||
| Baby V.O.X. | Baby Voices of Xpression | Robert D. Arndt Jr. | ||
| Bachman Turner Overdrive | A combination of band members' last names and the trucker's magazine "Overdrive". They were originally called BRAVE BELT, then BACHMAN-TURNER, then the final name. | Bobo | ||
| Backstreet Boye | The Backstreet Boys got their name from a place in Orlando, Floridia called the 'Backstreet Market.' They used 'Backstreet' and added the 'Boys' at the end because they felt like brothers. That's how they got their name '"Backstreet Boys." | Alisha | ||
| Backstreet Boys | There used to be a place in Orlando (where the group is based) called 'The Backstreet Market'. At the time, (the mid-90's) it was a popular hangout for teens and so they used it and added 'Boys' because they said "no matter how old we get, we'll always be boys!" | Heather | ||
| Backstreet Boys | They picked their names because theres this place in Orlando called the "backstreet market" its a place for tourists tours around the country and they just hang out there so they took 'backstreet' and added 'boys' on it......."Backstreet Boys" | Kid Nicky | ||
| Backstreet Boys | The band was disgusted by the state of society when Brian from the band came across a group in the back streets of New York who performed abortions on women who couldn't affort a professional clinic. They had been nicknamed the "back-street boys" and the band took this name as their own to make a statement that would shock the public and awaken them to the tragedy surrounding them in day to day life. | Pippin | ||
| Backstreet Boys | The Backstreet Boys got their name from a very popular hang out in Orlando called "Backstreet Market." They added "Boys" because they feel that they're like brothers. "Backstreet Boys." | Celeste | ||
| Backstreet Boys | From the Backstreet Market in Orlando, some of the boys' original home. | Shadow Phoenix | ||
| Backstreet Boys | Named after the Backstreet Market in Orlando. Their name was origionally Back Alley Boys, but they changed it, for obvious reasons. | Michi | ||
| Backstreet Boys | They named themselves after The Backstreet Market in Orlando, Florida, where they're from. | Princess Chic | ||
| Backstreet Boys | Named after the Backstreet market near Church Street Station in Orlando | Bobo | ||
| Bad A** Franklin | I believe the drummer Babe Vulpis came up with the name, possibly with the help of singer Dr. Nonsense. Just an off-the-cuff remark, if I remember correctly. | Grebo | ||
| Bad Brains | Named after a Ramones song. | Tim Horrigan | ||
| Bad Company | Heard story on the radio, years ago, that they were touring with Rolling Stones. Jagger, or someone, made comment about their (bad company members)not having showered in a while, and their resulting odor. He commented, "you guys are bad company". | Anthony | ||
| Bad Company | This groups name was inspired by the 1972 Robert Benton civil war film of the same name. | Scott | ||
| Bad English | Correction -- "English" in pool/billiards is the ball's spin as created by the angle and force of the blow from the cue. Bad English would be the result of a lousy shot. | Kielle | ||
| Bad English | While they were recording their first album, they took breaks to play pool. One of them bought a book on how to play pool better, but screwed up a shot anyway. He claimed there was something wrong with the table's felt, or "english", hence "Bad English". | Brian Kelly | ||
| Bad Religion | The band was formed when the members were in their mid-teens, so (naturally) they wanted a name that would be somewhat shocking. Having Head Cheese and Bad Religion as the two final alternatives, they chose the latter. | Chimaera | ||
| Bad Religion | Point blank, the lead singer Greg Graffin said they were young and just wanted to piss people off because they were an angry young punk band. | Avery | ||
| Badfinger | The middle finger is where this name came from. | SHUT UP WHILE THE MOVIE IS ON | ||
| Badfinger | Originally called "The Iveys" after a street in Swansea, Wales. Once the band was signed to Apple Records by The Beatles the band took the opportunity to change their name. The name "Badfinger" was derived from "Bad Finger Boogie," the working title of The Beatles' "With a Little Help from My Friends". | Robert D. Arndt Jr. | ||
| Ball Hanks | The singer, Frank Foo liked eating chocolate balls while watching Green Mile. So he combined. | paget | ||
| Bananarama | Contrary to what G said, their first single had nothing to do with inspiration for their name. The "rama" did come from the Roxy Music song "Pyjamarama", but the "banana" came from a children's show called "The Banana Splits." | Lady Rhay | ||
| Bananarama | Their first single, "Aie A Mwana", had lyrics in Swahili, which sounded "tropical" to the girls--somehow that suggested "bananas" to them. Then they took the "rama" from the song "Pyjamarama" by the group Roxy Music and put it all together. | G | ||
| The Band | One need look no further than the classic rockumentary, "The Last Waltz", where Richard Manuel shared the birth of the group's name. They actually pondered "The Crackers" as a choice! But they had been Bob Dylan's backup band and just went with "The Band." | DN | ||
| The Band | They could think of nothing better to call themselves. | Aaerni | ||
| The Band | Originally backing Ronnie Hawkins as The Hawks, they went solo as Levon and the Hawks. As Bob Dylan's backing band, they lived communally in a house dubbed Big Pink in Woodstock, NY, and became known as Dylan's "Band from Big Pink," subsequently shortened to The Band. | Country Paul | ||
| Band Of Susans | Three of the band were called Susan. | Bobo | ||
| Bandulu | The name is a term used in rasta patois for a bandit or criminal | Bobo | ||
| The Bangles | The "les" on the end of The BangLES was sort of a BeatLES tribute, since the girls were into the Beatles | *~*Kristyn*~* | ||
| The Bangles | At first, the band thought of dozens of names and came up with "The Colours", then they were "The Supersonic Bangs", and finally settled on "The Bangs". But then in 1981, another group called "The Bangs", from New Jersey, threatened to sue for use of their name, so they decided to change their name to "The Bangles", and it stuck with them. | Nick | ||
| Banned From Utopia | A group of ex-Zappa musicians who perform Zappa music. Originally called Band From Utopia (a variation of the Zappa album Man From Utopia). A concert promoter spelled it wrong on a marquee and the band liked it better than the original. | Mark | ||
| Bar Code | They got their name from the theory that the devil was trying to contact people through bar codes. Apparently there are three groups of six lines on lots of bar codes (or something like that). | Yoyo | ||
| Barbed Wire Noose | Guitarist Michael "Kreep" Snyder and Vocalist/Keyboardist Alex "Xander" Tasso came up with this band name after listening to a CD by a band called Three Sixes. The song "Possession" contained the lyric "My lust to mutilate, subjugate, and abuse I satisfy with torn flesh from a barbed wire noose." They loved it, and used it. NOTE: The name had nothing to do with the 1987 Harold Adams murder mystery. | Xander Tasso | ||
| Barclay James Harvest | Back in 1967 the band was playing rhythm and blues, and was called The Blues Keepers. As they began to write songs and develop an original style, they decided that they needed a name change, and that they wanted something flowery, like the West Coast psychedelic bands they admired, e.g. Quicksilver Messenger Service, Jefferson Airplane etc. Each of them wrote single words on pieces of paper which were drawn out of the hat one by one, and all were rejected until only three were left: James, a guy who used to sign with the band, Harvest because they were living in a farmhouse, and Barclay after the bank, because they aspired to make money! These were then rearranged to get the best-sounding name - Barclay James Harvest. [Source: http://www.bjharvest.co.uk (see FAQ)] | amfonda | ||
| Bare Naked Ladies | It actually started out as a dare. The guys dressed up as ladies (bare naked ones). Their friends cracked up because the guys had actually taken the dare. They called the guys the Bare Naked Ladies and the name just stuck. Not to mention the fact that they also like real bare naked ladies. | LoopeyLooSEY | ||
| Barenaked Ladies | Steve Page and Ed Robertson came up with the name at a Bob Dylan concert. | Ironlung | ||
| Barenaked Ladies | pmw - oz, Bobo, you're both right. All the others, well, wrong. Let me add one thing though, that rumor that Bobo put down was true. Ed didn't think that the term "Barenaked Ladies" was supposed to be some sexual name at all. NOT from Playboy, just a innocent, child-ish thing. | AVM | ||
| Barenaked Ladies | the real one is what pmw-oz said and the first two at the Bob Dylan concert were Steven Page and Ed Robertson, and Ed Robertson actually said their name for their first gig | magbatz | ||
| Barenaked Ladies | They were named because two of the members got together and thought of something that all men like and want to see. They had an interview in Rolling Stone. That's how they said the band was named. | jerad | ||
| Barenaked Ladies | "It's sexual, but it's not sexist. It's supposed to represent the feelings of innocence and discovery a little kid might experience on seeing his first barenaked lady," Ed Robertson explained. | Canuck | ||
| Barenaked Ladies | They were originally called "Free Beer." This was becasue they played in lots of bars and the band name would bring in lots of customers to the bar. The bar owners forced them to change name because customers were getting angry, as they were going to the bar becuase of "Free Beer." So the band changed its name to "Barenaked Ladies"...still a bit of false advertising, but they're an amazing band so watching them perform is worth it anyway. | BloFly | ||
| Barenaked Ladies | Ed Robertson picked the name after a phrase that he and his friends said when they found a Playboy magazine. (taken from vh1 behind the music) | kenny | ||
| Barenaked ladies | Steve and Josh were at a Bob Dylan concert and making fun of bands. They were saying various names, then they said, "Barenaked ladies" So that's how they got their name. | Hefner | ||
| Barenaked Ladies | not Bare Naked Ladies, it's Barenaked Ladies. According to Public Stories, Private Stunts the Official Biography, the band always wanted an ironic name. Some of the band used to be in a band called '5 Guys from Aberdeen' when there were acctually only 3 members and they were from the toronto suburb of Scarborough. Anyway, Ed was in a band and he had booked a gig, one night he was at a bob dylan concert and over heard someone talking about another band called Barenaked Ladies so, when he was asked what his band was called that was the first thing that came to mind. The rest of his band quit so he called Steve, asked him if he wanted ot be in a band, told him he already had a gig booked and told him the name. Ed says he's heard people say it's sexist and things but it's more about nievity and childishness than anything else. | Chris Brannigan | ||
| Barenaked Ladies | This was when they had their first gig with only two members. They couldn't come up with a name, so they chose Barenaked Ladies to freak people out! (It worked with my mom...) | Dominic L. | ||
| Barenaked Ladies | Two of the members were at a Bob Dylan concert and bored and were picking names for ficticious bands, (this was before they were in a band). When they got their first gig they were asked the name and one said Barenaked Ladies, and they couldn't change it as they have said "if we changed it, how would the five people who went to that first gig find us again'. Barenaked ladies are five fully dressed Canandian guys | pmw - oz | ||
| Barenaked Ladies | Just filtering out fiction from fact here by BloFly's post. "Free Beer" did that trick, uh, when the Barenaked Ladies were toddlers. 70's band. They did, however, use the same trick with "Barenaked Ladies" on readerboards outside small venues where they played. Whether or not this was a gimmick first or their name first, I don't know. But "Free Beer" is a different band. | ShimShamSam | ||
| Barenaked Ladies | When first starting off, they thought that their name might attract people who just wanted to see naked women, hoping that they might like what they hear. Basically just false advertisement. | joshua tindol | ||
| Barenaked Ladies | Band members Steven Page and Ed Robertson thought of the names during a boring concert they went to. They had bad seats, and pretended to be critics, talking about bands that didn't exist. One of these was Barenaked Ladies. A month or two later, Ed had a gig at a charity concert, but his band has just broken up. He told the people running it that he'd come, but he had a new band, and it was called Barenaked Ladies. He then got Steve to come with him, and it stuck. They kept it because, "If we changed the name, how could the seven people have found us again?" | Patteroast | ||
| Barenaked Ladies | It is rumored that they used this not as a sexual reference, but a reference as to a child's innocence, looking at a 'barenaked lady' for the first time. | Bobo | ||
| Barenaked Ladies | Ed and Steve were at a Bob Dylan concert and making fun of bands. They were saying various names, then they said, "Barenaked ladies" So that's how they got their name. | Josh Hefner | ||
| Basehead | From the term 'free-basing', or the use of drugs such as cocaine by heating them up and converting them to vapor. Comedian Richard Pryor set himself on fire in 1980 trying to free-base cocaine. | drug | ||
| Bastille | The lead singer's birthday is on Bastille Day. | Insertnamehere | ||
| Bat-Dog | In the mid-80's the lead guitarist was playing with his dog and got the idea after grabbing the dogs face and flapping his ears up and down. | Brandon | ||
| Bathory | The band is named after the infamous Hungarian countess, Elizabeth Báthory. | weirdkid106 | ||
| Bauhaus | Originally Bauhaus 1919, named after the now famous German architecture firm | Leather | ||
| Bay City Rollers | They wanted an American sounded name, they stuck a pin in a map of the USA and it ended up near Bay City, Michigan. On the map had the words "Rollers" to discribe the waves of Lake Michigan. This was told to me by the manager Tam Paton and Ian Mitchell one of the former band members whom I am married to. As least this is one story I heard that seemed to never change as so many of them have. | Wendy-Ann Antanaitis | ||
| Bay City Rollers | Not able to come up with a name, they stuck a pin in a map of the world, and it ended up near Bay City, Michigan. | Gary Decker | ||
| Bay City Rollers | Saw the interview on American Bandstand: The band had fallen in love with San Francisco, being the first place they had visited in California (a cool place compared to native Scotland) and had seen the locals roller skating. Impressed by both Frisco and skating they took the name Bay City Rollers.. | 2much time and trivia | ||
| BBMak | BBMak's name is sort of a blend of all of the group members' names. The first B comes from mark Barry, the second B comes from christian Burns, and the Mak part comes from ste MCNally. Ya see?? B - B- MAK!!!! | Leigh | ||
| BBS | Bulletproof Boy Scouts | Robert D. Arndt Jr. | ||
| Be Your Own PET | The band were good friends with another band named Art Circus. When BYOP were struggling for a name Art Circus recorded a song called 'Be Your Own Pet', Art Circus told BYOP to use that as a band name and they did. The Capatalized PET is completely random. | Jenna | ||
| Beach Boys | Before being known as the Beach Boys, the were known as Carl and the Passions, Kenny and the Cadets, and The Pendletones (which was a type of striped shirt, not sweater, that they wore). When their first single, Surfin', was released the name 'Beach Boys' was thrown on the demo tape because it was topical and the rest is history. | Dennis | ||
| Beach Boys | If the Pendleton story is true, and I have no reason to believe that it isn't , I would like to point out that the "Pendleton" the Beach Boys would refer to would be an outer shirt (not a sweater) made by Pendleton Woolen Mills. Standard surfer dress at the time. | Bill | ||
| Beach Boys | The original name they had picked out was the Pendleton's, a kind of sweater popular in the 50's and early 60's. The record company rennamed them the Beach Boys. | Andy | ||
| Beards in the wind | Well the guitarist and the singer were walking through a park in their hometown of Nilton, Colorado and passed a group of old men standing in a huddle. Milky ( the giutarist) commented on the way their beards all rippled when the wind blew. | Lyle Moxsom | ||
| BEAST | Boys of EAst Standing Tall | Robert D. Arndt Jr. | ||
| Beastie Boys | Many people confuse this for an acronym or a reference to beastiality. It said in the book that came with The Sounds of Science that they wanted a stupid name that sounded like the Angry Samoans. They also didn't expect the band to last more than a couple of gigs so named it the Beastie Boys. | home depot | ||
| Beastie Boys | Mike D (michael diamond) and MCA (adam yauch) kind of meant for it to be a joke when they first started the band. | Beastie Fan | ||
| Beastie Boys | Acronym : Boys Entering Anarchistic States Toward Internal Excellence | Bobo | ||
| Beatallica | The band plays Beatles and Metallica mashups, hence the name. | Tommy | ||
| The Beatles | Paul, George, and Ringo answered that it was an idea of John Lennon and Stuart Sutcliffe, yet many people believed that the truth was that John alone thought of the name, through a dream. This idea was based on an article that John wrote for the Mersey Beat, a newspaper about the music of Liverpool, and was the first thing that John ever had printed. It was printed in 1961, before the Beatles were famous, before Ringo joined, before 'Love Me Do' and 'Please Please Me', and even before Brian Epstein had met them. | No Bubbles | ||
| The Beatles | Discodan is the closest. in The Beatles anthology (the book) John lennon say that he had a dream inwhich God told him that he would one day be a beetle but with an "A" Beatle | melowme | ||
| The Beatles | Suzanne is utterly wrong. Paul never had a near-death experience with a beetle (lol?). The origin of the name "The Beatles" is usually credited to John Lennon, who said that the name was a combination word-play on the insects "beetles" as a nod/compliment to Buddy Holly's band (The Crickets) and the word "beat". | Cyphaze | ||
| The Beatles | In imitation of Buddy Holly's "The Crickets", with beetles mispelled to emphasize their rock and roll beat. | Equus | ||
| The Beatles | Note to Geoff: The "Beetles" in the classic film "The Wild One" were actually the bikers' girlfriends, not the bikers themselves. | dan | ||
| Beatles | Actually, the Beatles was the name of the bad Motor Cycle club in the Marlon Brando movie "The Wild One". Lee Marvin played the lead Beatle. | Geoff | ||
| The Beatles | "It came in a vision, a man appeared to us on a floating pie and said, 'From this day on you will be known as the Beatles with an 'A'.'" -John Lennon | Sporkkk | ||
| Beatles | The Beatles got their name from John, who was famous for his play on words. He decided on the name Beatles because he thought they were the best band around. So, Beatles was a play on words that really meant "Beat All" other bands. | Garry | ||
| The Beatles | The band began as "The Quarrymen". In the late fifties it was vogue to be "someone and something", so the name was changed into "Long John and Silver Beatles". John Lennon explained they played beat music and paid homage to Buddy Holly and the Crickets, hence the spelling "beatles" for the bug. In the end it all shortened into The Beatles. | Susanna Viljanen | ||
| The Beatles | All members of the band loved The Crickets, and it was Stu (John's best friend) who decided to call them "The Beetles" but after three years of playing and various name changes they ALL decided on "The Beatles" so they could be known as a beat band, although there weren't many at the time and some may have thought they would go nowhere because of it. John Lennon told the magazine "Mersey Beat" that he got it from a dream of a flaming pie, because he had a dark sense of humour and found it funny, as well as many of his fans......it can be found in the chapter "Hamburg" on pages 104 and 105 of "Lennon" by Ray Coleman. | Nichole | ||
| The Beatles | The Beatles early music was NOT all in 4/4, there were songs in 3/4, 12/8, 6/8 - long before they were famous. There was, howver, a back beat, so the beat was very important. All in all, clearly a play on words (typical of Lennon), and reference to the Crickets. The story about McCartney is made up (by McCartney). | Paulmarkj |
Entries starting with B are split into multiple pages: 1 2 3 4 5
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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