G, 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).

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There are 4772 Band Name Origin entries on the site.

Name	Origin	Submitted by:
G-Unit	50 Cents crew G-Unit is short for Guerilla Unit as in guerilla warfare. im not sure where it came from though but i guess itz just coz 50 is a street soldier	Sweet MC, Nash PB
G-Unit	The origin of this band name is simple. The lead singer of the band (50 Cent) looked like a gorilla (especially his face). So the "g" stands for gorilla, and the unit part is because the three are great friends, and they feel like one unit.	Christina
G-Unit	They got their name because the area in Queens, NY, where they are from, is like a jungle war zone. They are soldiers in the drug game, just like in South America - so they are a gorrilla (guerrila?) unit.	Square D
G.NA	They are her initials: Gina Jane Choi	Lefty Lucy
g.o.d.	Groove Overdose	Robert D. Arndt Jr.
G2	There is two girls in the band so G2 stands for girls two	kelly and sam
G4	They all went to the Guildhall Music School so the G stands for Guildhall. Guildhall 4.	Me
Gaining Loss	It was Jack Black's idea for a story, wherin the main character was supposed to gain a great deal of fame and fortune, then plunge into poverty suddenly and mysteriously. The story was entitled "Gain and Loss" but their old drummer (who quit shortly thereafter) said it would sound cooler as "Gaining Less" and Jack liked it. The bassist and new drummer (then rhythm guitarist) thought it would sound better as "Gaining Loss", so they put it to a vote. Gaining Loss won by 1 vote (a backup tour drummer came in to help with the vote; Jack and the old drummer lost the vote). Gaining Loss isn't very popular yet, but they're getting there.	Jorgon Von Strangle
Galaxie 500	Named after one of their friends' cars.	Bobo
Game Theory	Game Theory is a subset of theoretical mathematics concerning situatons in which each participant wants to "win" over the others.	flurgel
Gang Of Four	Just a slight correction to the explanation above regarding the original Chinese radical communists dubbed the Gang of Four. These four, lead by Mao Tse-tung's wife Jiang Qing (formerly Lan P'ing, nee Li Yun-ho) were politically active from 1969 (Chinese Cultural Revolution) to 1976 (Mao's death). So, the 1970s would be more acurate than the 1960s.	John3p
Gang of Four	Named themselves after a group of four extreme Chinese communists who were active in the 1960s (although a friend of a band member once remarked "It's a good name, because there are four of you").	kurt
Gap Band	70's funk band from Tulsa, OK. Each letter in GAP represents a Tulsa street located in the historic "Black Wallstreet" area known as the Greenwood Cultural District. The streets are Greenwood, Archer and Pine.	Vince
Garbage	Before Shirley Manson joined Garbage, the other members were experimenting in a recording studio making some strange new songs, and someone walked in and said, "Jeez, this stuff sounds like garbage!", and they thought it was a good name for their band and their sound.	Krista
Garbage	Similar to Total Confusion, a friend visited them when they were just getting started and told them they "sounded like garbage".	Brian Kelly
Garfunkel and Oates	They took their name from "famous second bananas" Art Garfunkel and John Oates.	JeReMy
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
Gary Numan	Born Gary Webb, he wanted to change his name to something more show-biz. On the first Tubeway Army single he was credited as "Valerian" (a rare flower, apparently) but didn't like it. He was looking through the London Yellow Pages when he saw an advert for a company called NEUMANN. He didn't want it to be too Germanic or else he'd be accused of stealing ideas from Bowie who was recording in Berlin, so he dropped the E and an N to make it NUMAN.	Pete
The Gathering	Frank Boeijen (keyboards), interviewed by sandandmercury.com : "The name the Gathering has been made like eleven years ago when we started this band. We were all between 15 and 17. We were watching a lots of movies those days. One of the movies spoke about immortality and that you could kill the immortals with cutting their head off [it's the first Highlander Frank is speaking about]. In the first part of the movie, they speak a lot about the gathering. There will be a gathering once with all the immortals. We though it was a nice name for a band, and that's how we created this name. And you can feel it's a cool name for five people who come together to make fine music."	Vorn
Geddy Lee	Gary Lee Weinrib. His parents were rescued from Nazi death camps in Poland. After the war they went to Canada. Gary was born and one of his relatives spoke with a thick Yiddish accent. Her call of "Gary Lee" came out as sounding like "Geddy Lee". Gary later took that as his stage name.	I Saw Rush 3 Times So Far
Geddy Lee	The vocalist/bassist of Rush was originally named Gary. I think it was his grandma who was from somewhere in Europe. I don't which country she was from but she had some accent where the r's are tapped or rolled with the tongue. Thus, the r in Gary was "tapped" whenever she said his name. For instance, "Gary! Dinner's ready!". Hence "GEDDY! Dinner's ready!"	Kyle
Geggy Tah	Band member Greg Kurstin's little sister used call him "Geggy" and Tommy Jordan's little sister used to call him "Tah". They later learned that the name means "mouth thanks" in Scottish.	Bobo
GEM	It's an acronym standing for Girls Entertainment Mixture, and its members are associated with gemstones.	Lefty Lucy
Genesis	The members were from two different bands; Anon and Garden Wall. Their first album had no band name, because they hadn't settled on one. The album was called "From Genesis to Revelations" and got misplaced into the gospel section of many record stores. Johnathan King, who had signed the band, suggested shortening this and calling themselves "Genesis". Thus, their second album (the first to use their signiture sound. The first was a BeeGees pastiche geared toward getting a redording contract) was called Trespass and had the band listed as Genesis.	Tim
Genesis	Genesis originally came together as an acoustic quartet, who had intended to work as songwriters rather than work as a band. This explains why they had no name, no rhythm section and no live experience when they submitted their demo tape to Jonathan King in the hope of securing a publishing deal. It was King who developed the quartet into a proper band, got them signed to Decca Records and named them Genesis, according to his belief that he had "created" them. The name appeared on their first single which was released a year before "From Genesis To Revelation", however the band's name did not appear on the sleeve of their debut album, hence the misunderstanding that it was a gospel album.	neptunevsmars
George Thorogood & The Destroyers	George was on the phone with a bar owner trying to get a gig and the guy said "what's the band's name?"; George didn't even have a band together at the time and just blurted out the first name that came to him "The Destroyers"	Thorobad
Georgia Wonder	Georgia Wonder was the stage name of Lulu Hurst, a 'magnetic phenomenon' whose vaudeville act toured America in the late 19th Century. Stephanie Grant and Julian Moore from the band chose the name after trying to duplicate these powers from an exposé they discovered in a book about the period.	Robert D. Arndt Jr.
The Germs	the legendary punk band, the germs, were origionally going to be a glam band and call themselves "sophistif*** and the revlon spam queen revolution." when pat smear (then je'tah) and darby crash (then bobby pin) went to go get t shirts printed up, the place charged by the letter, and they couldn't afford the shirts, so they changed there name to the germs while they were in the store.	musicalbacon
The Ghost Of A Sabre Tooth Tiger	Duo of Sean Lennon (John Lennon and Yoko Ono's son) and his girlfriend Charlotte. They took the name from the title of a short story Charlotte once wrote.	Edward
Ghoti Hook	actually, it was George Bernard Shaw who came up with the follies of the English language by saying fish should be spelled ghoti	marty
ghoti hook	ghoti hook, pronounced "fish hook," really is spelled with the 'gh' from words like 'enough' and the 'o' from 'women' and 'ti' from words like 'martian' but it was not a critic of the english language. the term is actually a musical reference, how certain different notes can give the same tone.	Eric
Ghoti Hook	The name of this band is actually pronounced "fish hook." Some critic of the english language a long, long time ago spelled "fish" by taking "the 'gh' from 'enough,' the 'o' from 'women,' and the 'ti' from 'martian.' Put those sounds together and you get "fish."	Sean
Ghoul Squad	A Chinese friend told them they were like an 'army of ghosts'	Bobo
Giggle Box Nausea	Rosey (singer/ electric guitarist) was on a crazy band name spree. She acutually had created a whole list before she found it. Rosey talked to Gwen (singer/ drumist) about it, and they decided to us it. She didn't make it up herself, but got it from a a funny website she was at.	Lena
Gigolo Aunts	Actually, "Gigolo Aunt" is a Syd Barrett song, which is probably where the Damned got it as well.	Paul Pearson
Gigolo Aunts	Came from a line from The Damned song "Gigolo", which read "I ain't no gigolo aunt."	newave
Gin Blossoms	The named themselves after "Gin Blossoms" or Rosacia, Zit like bumps you get from drinking to much.	Krinnky
Gin Blossoms	The band got the idea from an old photograph of comedian W.C. Fields....who had gin blossoms on his nose from aggravated drinking(gin blossoms are damaged capillaries that you get from a skin condition called roseacea)	Lauren
Girls Against Boys	The guys in the band picked the name Girls Against Boys because it was meant to reflect the "boy's club" (very fanatical exclusionary male audiences) of the late 1980s DC hardcore scene. All the girlfriends would hang in the back waiting for their boyfriends. ("Can we go now!?")	Ali
Girls' Generation	They picked this name since they are a group of all females.	Luci Flores
GLAM	GirLs be AMbitious	Robert D. Arndt Jr.
Glass Onion	The original band name of Travis, taken from an old Beatles song.	Andy Dunlop
GlassJAw	Daryl's father was a boxer. He wanted to pick a name that had something to do with boxing and alot of names were already taken. So he decided on glassjaw which is a term in boxing for somebody who is easily knocked out. The capital JA has no significance.	Keva
GlassJAw	Glasjaw is a boxing term for someone who can't take a punch the capital "JA" has no significance.	Michael Mascia (niMRod)
Glay	Originally, the band wanted to call themselves Gray, like the color grey. A mix of black and white. They wanted this so they could play both rock(black) and pop(white) music. However, during one of their very first lives, they spelt the name wrong (Glay instead of Gray), and decided to stick with it.	bishi luv
Glistened Red	A Christian Rock band... Glistened Red for the blood He(Jesus) shed.	Lindsey
The Go-Go's	Took their name from the Smokey Robinson & The Miracles classic 60's Motown hit "Going to a Go-Go". BTW there was a male surf group called the Go-Go's that recorded for RCA in the mid 60's but the group didn't know about them until they became famous!	Billy G
Godflesh	Godflesh is the American Indian term for peyote.	Ben
Godsmack	i know a lot more about Godsmack that all of you put together. The cold sore story is true. However it's only by chance that there's a song called "Godsmack" by Alice in Chains (Sully's favorite band growing up) and to set the record straight....it's Sully NOT Solly!!!	Brad
Godsmack	After talking to Sully on the "Madly In Anger With the World Tour" with Metallica, he told me the real story... The band was sitting around trying to think up a name and someone said a smart/disrespectful remark (he couldn't remember exactly what it was). Someone else replied "you better watch your mouth or God will reach down and smack you." Hence, "Godsamck." Funny how people think it is anti-religion...	Metallisteve
Godsmack	I seen an interview on MTV, and the lead singer and he said GODSMACK is "karma" when you did something revengeful, you get godsmacked and something bad happens to you	Bionic_chronic
Godsmack	They did get it from SULLY making fun of someone having a cold sore on his lip. Of course, Sully being Wiccan believed his mockery came back to bite him, by saying "I got godsmack" because of the idea the gods were telling what one sends out, he gets back three-fold. He made fun of a cold sore, then he got one, but we got Godsmack!	shawn
Godsmack	Saz Squatch's explanation isn't exactly right -- the english slang word is "gobsmacked" (also means punched in the mouth). as a term for being very surprised. Maybe the Band were surprised about god;-) or they just want to giv people their smack on god.... BTW "Squatch" is also an anagram of the german word "quatsch", which means verbal or written rubbish;-)	Mike
Godsmack	One of the band members had a cold sore on his lip. Solly, the lead singer, made fun of it. The next day, Solly had one in almost the same spot. One of the other guys in the band noticed it, laughed, and said "Looks like god just smacked you on your ass" they liked the ring of the name	LoSeRSTaR
godsmack	I dunno where this band name came from but Godsmack is not a British slang......Its GOBSMACKED	monkey
Godsmack	it's British slang. to be "godsmacked" is to be dumbstruck or flabbergasted. source	Saz Squatch
Godsmack	They actually got their name from a song called "Godsmack" on the Alice in Chains album "Dirt". Knowing Alice members habits, the song was more than likely about really good heroin - "smack". The info you had here about it being British slang for being "flabbergasted" is incorrect...that term is "gobsmacked" with a "B" - as in slapped in the gob (the mouth), not goDsmack with a D.	Tim Lordan
Godsmack	This band was named after the Alice in Chains song "god smack"	adam
Godsmack	Sully saw a women with a cold sore one day and made fun of it. The next day he woke up, he had a cold sore on his lip. And somebody said out, "Looks like you've been Godsmacked", and the liked the sound of it, so the name stuck. It has nothing to do with stealing from Alice in Chains or their religious beliefs.	Jeff
Godsmack	yes, one band member- who played guitar did have a cold sore on his lip, and yes Solly (the lead singer) DID make fun of it. and the next day Solly DID have a cold sore as well..... where all other entries fail is on what the guitarist replied... which was "God smacked you down for dissing me." the end	Chuck
Godsmack	There are two origins for this name. Sully(lead singer) has often been quoted as saying it came from practice sessions when a former drummer had a cold sore on his lip and the entire band especially Sully were ragging him about it. The next day Sully had a cold sore and they said it was a Godsmack for his a**. However,on the band's dvd some interviewer asked Robbie where the band got the name and he said they stole it from Alice in Chains, who have a song called Godsmack	buffy
Godsmack	One of the band members had a cold sore on his lip. Solly, the lead singer, made fun of it. The next day, Solly had one in almost the same spot. One of the other guys in the band noticed it, laughed, and said "You just got your Godsmack."	chris
Godsmack	The name "godsmack" is a reference to an Alice in Chains song. Smack is slang for heroin, which Alice and Chains lead singer Lane Staley was heavily involved with.	Michelle
Godsmack	Taking the "British slang" explanation a step further: Vocalist Sully Erna, in an interview on their hometown radio station WAAF, explained the origin of the name this way: "I had been making fun of Robbie (Merrill, bassist) because he'd had a canker sore for awhile, and the next day I had one. God came down and b****-smacked me for rippin' Robbie.	Pete Fourwinds
Godsmack	The story of the cold sore is true. The person that had to cold sore in the first place was the drummer at the time Tommy Stewart. But the lead singer's name is Sully Erna NOT Solly!	Audy
Godsmack	this isn't british slang don't know the origin but gobsmacked is british slang for flabbergasted	Steve
Godspeed You! Black Emperor	They named the band after a Japanese documentary on the infamous Japanese biker gang the Black Emperors. The Documentary was called "Godspeed You Black Emperor!" , but later on the band changed the positioning of the exclamation mark.	Mark Allen
Golden Earring	Golden Earring originally started as The Tornado's, in 1964. But after an international hit from an English band with the same name, they changed their name to The Golden Earrings, after the song by Peggy Lee. In the late sixties the band name was shortened to Golden Earring. In an interview on Dutch television, Coldplay's lead singer Chris Martin called the greatest rockband of Holland: "Golden Herring".	Nico Egbers
Goldfinger	Named after a certain James Bond movie	Bobo
Golgotha	This metal band were named after Mount Golgotha, meaning 'hill of the skull', where Jesus was crucified near Jerusalem.	Bobo
Gomez	At an early gig when the band were still nameless they put up a sign for a friend (to see where the gig was). His last name was gomez so the sign said "Gomez band here". Everyone coming to the gig thought the band was called gomez so the band just followed suit	Pen15
Goo Goo Dolls	After a venue promoter said he would book them if they changed their original name the band's name was taken from an ad found in True Detective magazine.	me
Goo Goo Dolls	That's actually not the REAL story because the Dolls were never called the Sex Maggots. The rest of it is true.	Amanda
Goo Goo Dolls	Children's dolls that were packed with explosives in the Vietnam War were called Goo Goo Dolls.	mike
Goo Goo Dolls	The Goo Goo Dolls got their name from an ad they saw in True Detective magazine.	Nitin Wagh
Goo Goo Dolls	This is the CORRECT story. The band was called the "Sex Maggots" and when a venue refused to put this name "up in lights" they had to change it. They got the name Goo Goo Dolls out of a True Detective Magazine which had an add for the doll in it.	Patti
Goo Goo Dolls	Originally, the band was called "The Sex Maggots". When a club owner in the band's hometown of Buffalo, New York balked at putting the band on stage with that name, they were pressed to find a new one just minutes before they were set to perform. Flipping through a True Detective magazine, the band members spotted an ad for a goo goo doll, and they thought it would be funny and ironic for a trash-punk-rock band to have that name. And so it stuck.	ChickenCookie
Goo Goo Dolls	They guys of Sex Packet got drunk and were looking at a magazine that had an advertisement for a puppet called a Goo Goo Doll. The next day they were hungover and couldn't remember their original band name but they remembered the Goo Goo Doll. It stuck.	Susan
Goo Goo Dolls	Saw this on Behind The Music: It's was actually named, spontaneously, after an inflatable sex toy. The band members don't like the name any longer, but are loath to change it after the success they've had.	Rod Beck
Goo Goo Dolls	They saw an ad in the back of a comic book for a doll whos expression changed if you stuck your finger in the back of its head.	Amanda
Goo Goo Dolls	They got it off of a tatoo on Reznkik's arm. It was a baby doll.	S.T.G.
Goo Goo Dolls	They came up with this name because it's the name of a doll that was made in the 40's.	sayit
Good Bad Johnny	the late and great calgary, alberta punk-rock/cover band g.b.j were named after a comic book character created by drummer jesse locke's 9 year old brother	pumpkin patch
Good Charlotte	They're not from any place called Charlotte Town. (They're actually from Waldorf, Maryland) and they didn't get the name from the book "Charlotte's Web or "Lolita". They picked it because they knew of a book (I'm not sure if they actually had the book or not) and they just chose the name because they liked it.	xColorlessAngelx
Good Charlotte	All the members of GC were bullied in highschool by the "popular group"(jocks,cheerleaders,etc..) and when it came time 2 name the band Benji and Joel(the twins) remembered a book their mother read them called Good Charlotte about a little kid being bullied in school.....(PS: GC ROX!)	~<3BeNjI&BiLlY<3~
Good Charlotte	They picked it out from the popular childrens book Charlotte's Web. They said it and it had a nice ring to it.	BOB
Good Charlotte	i was reading the book Lolita by Nabokov...and Lolita's mothers name is charlotte..and the author refers to her many times as good charlotte.....think its possible that they got the name there?	cj
Good Charlotte	They named themselves after a book called "Good Charlotte".	Me
Good Charlotte	The madden twins were looking in a store and found a children's book called 'Good Charlotte.' it was a lil' girls name, later on they thought it was unique, and used it.	Riot Girl
Good Charlotte	it's because their from charlottetown (canada) so they called their groupe Good Charlotte.	Christele
Good Charlotte	This band took their name after a book called "good charlotte" about a girl named charlotte who was always bullied and her grandma called her 'good charlotte.' the members were bullied (in school) as well.	punkon420
Good Charlotte	It's just a children's book and they thought it was a cool name for a band, no deep meaning or anything.	killtheteenies
Goodnight Caulfield	A reference to the main character of Catcher in the Rye, Holden Caulfield, and their dismissal of negative attitudes such as his.	Alex
Gorgoroth	It's from the Lord of the Rings. Gorgoroth means something to the extent of "desolate field", but primarily it simply SOUNDS METAL when you say it out loud.	CODK
Gorillaz	Two Reasons: 1.Lead Singer 2D (Damon Albarn from BLUR) was attacked by a chimp when he was young. 2.Animator and co-creater Jamie Hewlett was the creator of the cult comic book TANK GIRL and in the last issue he has the lead character (Rebecca) get killed by a mechanic Gorilla. And the spelling just looks cooler than the real spelling.	Aaron Shanley:Gorillaz Freak
Gorillaz	after 2-ds (frontman, lil hottie that he is) lil...accident...he started walking somewhat like a monkey, russel (drummer) resembled a gorilla mainly in his bulk and muscle, and murdoc (bass and self proclaimed band leader) couldnt spell...plus it looks better according to the well educated russel there fore the band named their selves Gorillaz and theyre alterego band was Space monkeyz...but das another story	Audra Oppenheimer
Gorky's Zygotic Mynci	From interview with Gavin Millar: "When we were starting a band in school, myself and Euros and John, who's now left, we were thinking of a name, and trying to think of a really cool name, but we just ended up with crap names, so we thought "ah f*** it", we might as well stick with the most ridiculous crap name we could think of, because we never thought we'd go for this long or whatever. So then John came up with a name, I think he found Gorky, but it was meant to be the Gawky spelling, as in someone who's a bit awkward and Zygotic from the dictionary or from a biology lesson and then Mynci is just a funny way of spelling monkey! So we thought yeah, we'll go with that, and so we've stuck with it ever since." Nearest translation of the name- "dimwit reproductive monkey"	mr vlad
Gorman Prophecy	Since I am the brother of lead vocalist Matt Myers, I know this to be absolute fact firsthand. The band was originally formed and founded by the bass player, who is better known as Charlie Death. His actual name is Charlie Gorman. He named the band what he did because it was his "prophecy" that he would one day create a heavy metal band that would go on to achieve great success in the music industry, and this band that he founded is the manifestation of his "prophecy". Nice!	Kirk Bradford Myers
Gov't Mule	During the civil war the u.s. gov't told african americans if they signed up to fight they would receive 40 acres and a mule when they returned.	Sara
Gov't Mule	When members of the Mule were still in the Allman Brothers Band, Allmans drummer Jaimoe made a comment about the size of a woman's a. The woman was the late wife of James Brown, and she was a rather hefty woman. According to the band, Gov't Mule is a term for a big lady's a.	Brian

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