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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 4775 Band Name Origin entries on the site.

Name	Origin	Submitted by:
H.A.M.	Heart And Mind	Robert D. Arndt Jr.
H.I.M	Their original name was His Infernal Majesty. But people thought they were a Satanic band which attracted the wrong crowd of people so they changed it to H.I.M	lostfaith
H.I.M.	Contrary to what you may have heard, HIM is NOT a Satanic band. and this is exactly why they changed their name from His Infernal Majesty, to HIM. Singer Ville Valo named it this as a joke, but many people began to believe they were a satanic, devil-worshipping band, so, naturally, as they weren't, they shortened it down to H.I.M., in the states however, they have to use "HER" because of law agreements and such, apparently theres already a band HIM in the states or something? I'm not clear on that part.	Dave Way
H.I.M.	Ville Valo once stated that His Infernal Majesty was an entirely different band than the present day HIM. He mentions "Hanson Is Murder", "murder" as in another way to describe someone as being really hot. Hopefully he's not referring to that trio boyband.	Kyle
H.O.T.	High-five of Teenager	Robert D. Arndt Jr.
Haddaway	From his last name	music
Haircut 100	i saw in VH1's bands reunited that they got this name by just sitting down in the kitchen and thinking of the stupidest name they could possibly think of. Haircut 100 was the one they laughed at the most, so that was their band name	Jake M
Hanoi Rocks	The guitarist, Andy McCoy watched a document about drug factory in vietnam and screamed HANOI ROCKS.	yoshi
Hanson	they picked out this name because it was their last name. They had been called the Hanson Brothers, but some people called them the Handsome Brothers, so it was trimmed to simply Hanson.	virginia
Hanson Brothers	This hockey oriented punk band is named after a trio of goonish hockey playing brothers from the 1977 Paul Newman film Slapshot.	tim gueguen
Happy Mondays	According to Bez on some program I saw it was a responce to " I Don't Like Mondays" not "Blue Mondays.	Lizardking
Happy Mondays	Ironic happiness of the unemployed people that in Monday can't work.	ank
Happy Mondays	A response to New Order's "Blue Monday"	Bobo
Happy The Man	The name comes from a Genesis song "Happy The Man."	Jake Small
Hard-Fi	It was given to them by Lee "Scratch" Perry, and it is a type of music that was originated in the mid 1900's.	Dongquan
Hatfield and the North	From a road sign on the A1 out of London	ASRB
Hawk Nelson	In an interview , Dunn, the band's frontman, revealed the meaning of the band's name. He said that when he was about 14 years old, there was a video game he had played called "Too Extreme" on the Sony Playstation. It required the player to create a name for the character. He got the first name from Tony Hawk. "Nelson" he got from a boot repair store in his hometown: Nelson Boot Repair.	Emi
Hawkwind	The name came from sax player Nik Turner's ability to clear his throat and break wind simultaneously	Jim Annison
Hawthorne Heights	Hawthorne Heights was actually named after the place in Ohio called Hawthore Heights, Ohio. This leading to the bands single 'Ohio Is For Lovers', and later 'Niki FM'.	Brittney
Hawthorne Heights	If you watch the dvd that comes with the special edition of "The Silence in Black and White" JT and Eron are asked that question and Eron says that Hawthorne came from one of their favorite authors, Nathaniel Hawthorne and they came up with Heights to represent them trancending to another higher level	Amanda
Hawthorne Heights	"Hawthorne" comes from a writer named Nathaniel Hawthorne, not sure where "Heights" comes from.	your mom
Hawthorne Heights	The Hawthorne part is in memory of Nathaniel Hawthorne. The band thought the name needed an edge so they added heights to it. FYI the band didn't know at the time Hawthorne Heights was a city in Ohio. They have no emotional connection to the place whatsoever. They didn't even know it existed. It did not inspire Ohio is for Lovers or any other singles. They are from Dayton, Ohio.	Lish
Hawthorne Heights	'Hawthorne' is a reference to the author Nathaniel Hawthorne and 'Heights' refers to transcendentalism. (from Wikipedia)	Nina Hikari
Head Space	Couldn't think of a name for the band so the bass player,Terry, said that it was doing his head space in trying to think of a name.	gib
Heartbreakers	They are becoming a new band right this minute and put it all together there will be between 2-5 members all coming from the south-east of England.If you have any comments write it down in the box below.They will be girls.	Beth
Heaven 17	Re Brixton Hill's comment - actually the name is from the novel, mentioned with Luke Sterne and Googly Gogol.	H
Heaven 17	The band "Heaven Seventeen" does appear in the novel "A Clockwork Orange". But it's also mentioned in the file (which was released in 1971, not 1973).	davorg
Heaven 17	A fictional band mentioned in a scene in a record shop in the film 'A Clockwork Orange'	hudson
Heaven 17	The name does come from a band in "A Clockwork Orange". But where does THAT band's name come from? The Heeren 17, the Board of Directors of the old Dutch East Indies Company, which ran Indonesia while it was a Dutch colony.	Jay Flynn
Heaven 17	It is from the Burgess novel "A Clockwork Orange" but in the novel the girls are looking at records by the artists "Johnny Zhivago" and "The Heaven Seventeens".	Antoine
Heaven 17	This name originated from the Anthony Burgess novel 'A Clockwork Orange'	Bobo
Heaven 17	It wasn't actually from the Burgess novel but frm the 1973 Kubrick film. There's a scene where Alex goes shopping and picks up two girls at a record stall. "The Heaven Seventeen" is one of the names of the groups in the charts.	Brixton Hill
Heaven Seventeen	In the book "A Clockwork Orange" the droogs hang out in a bar. The house band is called "The Heaven 17."	Darby
Heavens to Murgatroid	The band's bassist/manager, Tim McCoy, was a big Hanna-Barbera fan; this comes from something Snagglepuss had a habit of saying.	Nimble
Heavy Sigma	The origins for the band Heavy Sigma is disputed. Originally guitarist/lead vocalist Patrick Lew named the band Chaos In Chinatown based on a recommendation from a former friend on social-media, but desperately wanted to change the band's name to avoid complaints from the Asian American community. At some point, Heavy Sigma was also known as Your Audio 2 Riot, but Patrick Lew hated the name, thinking it sounded too "metalcore" and Heavy Sigma wasn't a metalcore style band. The origins of Heavy Sigma came from many different sources. Older social-media posts claimed that Patrick Lew changed the name of his current band as a pun on another local San Francisco band that he initially had a grudge with. Others claimed that he named the band Heavy Sigma after listening to the Mick Jagger side project Super Heavy. But in reality, Patrick Lew named his current band Heavy Sigma after combining two words from a band name generator on the Internet. He apparently typed in "Heavy" and one of the search results came up with the name Heavy Sigma. And he liked the name, so he officially changed his band's name from Chaos In Chinatown to Heavy Sigma.	George Mack
Hedley	The band was driving by a small town in B.C. that was for sale for not alot of money. The band set a goal to by the town the goal faded away by the name stuck.	Fisha
Heldon	The name of a city in Norman Spinrad's novel Iron Dream, which claims to be written by a parallel universe Adolph Hitler who joined Sci-Fi fan clubs instead of armies. Heldon was a great experimental French band in the 70's.	Bobo
Helios Creed	Helios was an ancient sun god. The Collosus of Rodan (one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World) was a huge statue depicting Helios.	Bobo
Hell Is For Heros	It's the name of a war film.	Natalia
Hello Dave	Dave was a sound technician for the band and was kind of "out of it" most of the time. The band members would always say "Dave, Hello Dave".	Blais
hellogoodbye	Partially from the Beatles song, and partially because life goes by so quickly. Forrest said this on an interview I saw, so I'm pretty sure it's accurate.	Shanna
Helmet	They got their Name from the german Taxidriver (Armin Mueller Stahl) in "Night on Earth". The Taxidrivers Name is Helmut but all People call him Helmet because they are not familar to the name Helmut	Igor Ignor
Helmet	The lead singer came up with this alternative name to something unrepeatable on a family website (c.f Captain Beefheart)	Bobo
Herman's Hermits	Peter Noone (lead singer) put on a pair of eyeglasses upside-down and they said he looked like Sherman from The Bullwinkle Show, but Peter thought he said Herman (instead of Sherman), so they started calling him Herman. As for the name "Hermits", Peter has avoided telling "why Hermits" and has given many funny stories. But the most prominent story was one where the band was waiting backstage and someone said they "looked like a bunch of bloody hermits", likely battered and beat from travelling. They were first known as the Heartbeats for some time, then changed their name to Herman And The Hermits, then shortened to Herman's Hermits.	Tig
Herman's Hermits	Someone in the record business noticed that singer Peter Noone bore a great resemblance to "Sherman", of the American TV cartoon duo "Sherman and Peabody." (Yeah, I know; Why not Sherman's Shermits?	Khalil
Herman's Hermits	In a BBC radio interview, one of the band members blamed their name on the promoter for their first successfuk tour. Their original name was Sherman's Hermits, but the promoter left the initial "s" off the signs advertising the tour, and since that tour was what finally got the band up into the "big time," they were stuck with the truncated aliterative name.	Rex Brocki
Hexen	The word Hexen in German means "Witches"	Robert D. Arndt Jr.
Hijack Jupiter	Mike the drummer found a piece of paper in the parking lot of a supermarket but before he could give it back to the woman who dropped it, she sped away. He looked at it and it was a to do list that said "buy milk, pick up kids, hijack jupiter." Weird.	Steve
Hilltop Hoods	Their name comes from a suburb in south-eastern Adelaide known by the local youth as the Hilltop, where Suffa and Pressure were raised. The name "Hilltop Hoods" was suggested by local rapper, Flak, of the Cross Bred Mongrels.	hie rise
HIM	Ville said on the messageboard: "In almost every interview someone asks what does HIM stand for. I can't even remember our latest lie about that. When Hanson was hot, we said it means Hanson Is Murder. The name doesn't have a particular history. His Infernal Majesty was a totally different band. I think HIM derives from some death metal joke. And it was our protest to Haile Selassie's rastafarian religion, he used to be called His Imperial Majesty. But nowadays because of Linde's hair, we actually might be supporting him."	lauren
HIM	It is unclear what HIM stands for because the band usually says something different each time asked. Ville said in an interview that it means absolutely nothing. He said he had told some people that it meant Hanson (the long blonde haired trio) Is Murder. The His Infernal Majesty comes form a Rastafarien leader called His Infernal Majesty. It was said that they named it in protest of the rastafarien religion.	Sean
HIM	In an interview I have recorded, Ville says since they loved Black Sabbath. They thought it was cool that they chose their name from a horror film. They did the same and chose His Infernal Majesty. But in Scandinavia around that time, there was a lot of trouble with black metal bands burning churches and stuff, and since it was a dark sounding name they didn't want to be confused with those people, so they shortened it to HIM. Since then Ville has said it stood for other things as a joke, and he said that he likes how it's short and easy to pronounce in every language.	poisongirl
HIM	HIM - His Infernal Majesty. Against popular believe it has got nothing to do with "Satan". His Infernal Majesty used to be Ville Valo's (lead singer) nickname, given to him by the band members and referring to the impact he has on girls and to his pulling power.	EMH
HIM	The name was picked out from the Satanic bible, as Ville Valo is indeed satanic. The band represent the carnal nature of humanity, ie. Love and death, hence the morbid song titles. In the satnic bible, there are repeated references to Satan being called 'His Infernal Majesty'. Thank you, and good night.	Jon
HIM	Contrary to what people would like to think, the Finnish band HIM does NOT stand for His Infernal Majesty. There is much dispute about this, but I'm trying to set the record straight. Back in the day, before HIM had all the members it has today, it had been called His Infernal Majesty. But as for the talented love metal band we know of today, HIM is simply what it says. Concluding that HIM does NOT stand for His Infernal Majesty, however, at one point in time it had.	TrixPlease!
HIM	Him stands for His Inferno Majesty. They name dit this because the band idolized King Henry IV.	Blake
HIM	Stands for His Infernal Majesty.	DamRho
HIM	HIM were NEVER his infernal majesty or Hanson is murder, they just chose three letters that are pronounced fairly similar in each dialect.	Kayleigh
HIM	Either His Infernal Majesty(Edgar Allan Poe) or Helsinki Ice-hokey Maniacs or Hell-raising Morons. You pick.	when does tarzan shave?
HIM	His Infernal Majesty was the name they first used when they did their 1st show. But the people thought it was some tribute to something, so they changed it.	jordan
Hinder	They were mad about not having a name so they looked up angry in the dictionary and it said "also see hinder" and it stuck with them	A7Xshredder101
His Name Is Alive	The dreamy, eclectic rock group His Name Is Alive took their name from a high school history class lecture about Abraham Lincoln, in which the teacher mentioned "his name is alive."	Bobo
The Hives	The lead singer Howlin Pete found the word Hives in an English dictionary and thought it was a deadly disease. Guess he should have done his homework.	Rockangel@aol.com
The Hives	As the band formed in Fagersta, Sweden, members (in their late teens) wanted an aggressive name. Drummer Chris Dangerous wanted a disease name and the band eventually picked in the dictionnary : Hives, that had on top of that 5 letters, as much as the band has members. great, ain't it ?	Keupon69
The Hives	According to lead singer/yeller Howlin' Pelle, the name was arrived to by their supposed manager "Randy Fitzsimmons " Pelle does however make the point "we're not a nest, we're definatly a rash, we get under peoples skin"	Johny
Hoku	Her name means "star" in Hawaiian. This is her given name.	Jenna
Hoku	That's her real birth name, Hoku Christien Ho. (Born June 10, 1981 in Oahu, Hawaii.) She is the seventh of former Hawaiian pop star Don Ho's 10 children, but the first of Ho's two children with Patricia Swallie Choy, also a former singer.	David Pratter
Hole	There's a third reason as well ... the slang term 'hole' was a derogatory term usede about women, and Courtney Love wanted to reclaim the word in typical in-yer-face style.	Kiatali
Hole	It's a combination of two reasons. Courtney Love was talking to her mom on the phone and her mom said something about Courtney having this big, festering hole inside of her. They also got it from a line in the play Medea (Euripides) that goes "There is a hole that pierces right through me."	Katie Jacobson
Hole	One day Courtney Love was arguing with her mother about something and near the end of it, her mother yelled "Courtney, you can't go through life with a big hole inside of you just because you had a bad childhood!". Hence, the name "Hole" was born. I read this in Courtney's biography by Poppy Z Brite and Courtney also confirmed it in Rolling Stone a few years ago.	RIOTGRRRL
The Hollies	As a tribute to Buddy Holly	Henk
The Hollies	There are two different stories as to the origin of the Hollies' name. 1: They played their first gig on Christmas; 2: The name is a tribute to Buddy Holly (this is according to a quote made by Graham Nash in the Crosby, Stills, and Nash Biography by Dave Zimmer).	Amy
The Hollies	When the group started, the band tried out different names. For a Christmas gig, they took the name "The Hollies" (as in "deck the halls with balls of holly") and the name stuck. Other bios say they took the name as a tribute to Buddy Holly.	Billy G
The Hollisters	After Rafe Hollister on the Andy Griffith Show	Big Ed
Hollyhotchers	The bass player heard about a game called Hollyhotch (pronounced Hi-ho-che) while on vacation in Spain. The directions are to see who can pee the farthest.	Bobo
Hondo Maclean	The Welsh hard rock band named themselves after a character from the 80s cartoon M.A.S.K.	Brian Kelly
Honeymoon Killers	This great New York band was named after a piece of 1970 film noir.	Bobo
Honeymoon Suite	The band is from Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada. That town and its American counterpart make up a very popular area for weddings and honeymoons and such. You can do the math.	Charlie Blondin IV
Hoobastank	they were all at a football match together and someone yelled out 'who but stink' so thats how they made hoo-ba-stank	Cheyenne
Hoobastank	I was watching an interview with the guys and thet said that they were in a music store and one of them picked up a pink guitar and strummed it. There was something wrong with the amp and it played the chord about half a second after it had been strummed but when it played, it was loud as hell. The sound made by the strings had been a 'hoo' sorta sound and the amp had made a stunk noise. Therefore hoo-stunk. After this they decided to make the band name Hoobastank in memory of the pink guitar.	Phate the Exotic Frog
Hoobastank	I am from the same town as Hoobastank, and my brother was friends with them in high school. They got their name because when they went to record their first demo, right after they started. They walked into the recording studio and there was a man in the waiting room. He had Tourette's Syndrome. Out of nowhere, he just started yellng "Hoobastank! Hoobastank! Hoobastank!" They thought it was funny, so they used that name.	Adam
Hoobastank	The band's bassist's full name is Marrku Hoobastank Lappalainen. He is from Finland.	Matt Flohr
Hoobastank	A brother of one of the members drove a tank for a German company named Hoobas	Bobo
Hoobastank	It is either Markku's middle name or the word hopscotch in another languag. (The band has claimed both, the latter on MTV) It does not stand for whose but stinks.	Laura
Hoobastank	They were trying to think of a name and one of them said "Scubatank" and eventually they turned that into "Hoobastank"	Kayla
Hoobastank	I heard a radio interview where it was said that it stands for the H in Jesus H. Christ	Bytemangler
The Hooters	Named after a small wind instrument with keys, they played one at the beginning of their "And We Danced" video.	ChrisPC
Hootie and the Blowfish	There was another band in their university named Tootie & the (can't remember what the second half was). The two bands were the competing covers bands on campus. Hootie and Tootie.	Wang Chung Fan 1
Hootie and The Blowfish	Back in the college days of the band, they had two college buddies. One resembled Dizzy Gallespie with large cheeks who they referred to as Blowfish, and the other wore large glass and resembled a Hoot owl, thus calling him Hootie. One night they were playing in a local bar and the two guys walked in to which one of the members commented that walking in was Hootie and The Blowfish.	DJ
Hootie and The Blowfish	The name does not refer to Darius Rucker or the band, but two of their friends.	right
Hootie and the Blowfish	There was a kid in Darius Rucker's high school who looked like and owl. They called him Hootie. There was another kid with puffed up cheeks that they called Blowfish. Hootie is also the nickname of the legendary Kansas City jazz pianist Jay McShann.	Bobo
Hot Action Cop	A girl who used to go out with the band's singer, Rob Werthner, began dating a guy from the NYPD. He had a feathered back haircut, which looked out of date and out of place, and the band called him "Hot Action Cop" whenever he came into the bar they hung out at.	Colin
Hot Chelle Rae	Before HCR picked their current name, they had a very "dedicated" Myspace fan. Her name was Chelle Rae, but in the end she was really a stalker who was using a model's photos and identity. They named their band after the fan they would never forget. And, of course, she looked hot.	Amanda
Hot Tuna	The phrase "hot tuna" in drug-speak refers to when you are high on heroin - it's the opposite of "cold turkey".	Heather
Hot Tuna	The band was not originally called "Hot Shit".Guitarist and singer Jorma Kaukonen says the name Hot Tuna comes from a question posed in their song "Keep On Truckin' Mama".The song asks "Now whats thats smell like fish,oh baby,I really would like to know?"The answer is ,of course, "Hot Tuna".Incidentally,Hot Tuna's albums are credited as "Fish O'Baby" productions.	T-Bone
Hot Tuna	The band originally wanted to be called "Hot Shit." Surprisingly, their label didn't go for it. A compromise was reached.	Paul Pearson
Hot Water Music	Named after a Charles Bukowski book. Bukowski was a wino who wrote incredible stuff.	Bobo
Howlin' Wolf	I'll never forget being at the Shaboo Inn, in Willimantic Connecticut, the week Wolf died; Muddy Waters was there, and he played Smith's old anthem in tribute to his fallen comrade/rival. But Wolf himself claimed variously that he adapted the high, lonesome wail of country/western pioneer Jimmie Rodgers; and/or that his grandfather used to tell him scary stories about "how the Wolf done Little Red Riding Hood," and that these evocative tales led him to adapt the "Wolf" personna as his own.	JazzmanChgo
Howlin' Wolf	Howlin' Wolf was a name in a FUNNY PAPA SMITH Record. It also described Wolf's voice very well. Source = History Channel special which aired in January, 2000.	Bobo
Howthorne Heights	(ACTUAL) Two places in Dayton, OH (their hometown) are called Hawthorne Hill and Huber Heights.	Jon

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