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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:
Zao	Means "Alive" in Greek	Robert D. Arndt Jr.
Zao	The band name was arrived at because the word Zao in latin means "life of Christ" therefore fitting their hardcore christian Band.	Aaron Heagen
Zebra Three	The leader of the band, a guy named Troy Hess,had the idea to put a band together back in 2000 that played 70's classic rock n disco,80's,90's n current as well as some originals. He wanted a name that had a retro feel, so one night back in 2000 he was watching a Starsky&Hutch rerun on the TUBE, and when the call came over their radio..." beep,beep,beep...Zebra Three, Zebra Three...come in Zebra Three" he immediately knew that was the name. He had always been a big S&H fan, n this kinda helped glorify them long befire the moviewas even thought of !	D.L. Collins
Zed	Around the time 'Pulp Fiction' came out, all the band members liked the character 'Zed' (the ratty guy who owns the shop) so named their band after him.	Lauren
Zed	Zed is not the pawn shopowner in Pulp Fiction. That is Maynard. Zed is Maynard's friend, the cop.	ben
Zen Arcade	Named after an album by Husker Du	Hayden
Zeni Geva	Guitarist/vocalist K.K. Null says that the name of his Japanese band is taken from a "very serious, dark cartoon" from his homeland. Loosely translated, he says the name means "Money Violence" (have also seen it translated as "Blood Money").	kurt
Zero Cool	The lead singer used the name of a Michael Crichton book he had recently read.	La Choy
Zeromancer	Zeromancer made their name up by combining the titles of the novels "Less Than Zero" by Bret Easton Ellis, and "Neuromancer" by William Gibson	Correction
Zeromancer	With the sound of the music, they have obviously put the sci-fi Zero and mixed it with another cool word Necromancer, and the birthed name was a cooler name Zeromancer, defining the sound of their music.	Kevin Hamul
ZOEgirl	Zoe in Greek, I believe, means Life. Life is a very great thing, so ZOEgirl sounded relevant.	Ash
Zoegirl	The name ZOEgirl comes from the greek word zoe, which, in the New Testament, means life. Through their music, ZOEgirl talks about life in Christ.	Robert D. Arndt Jr.
Zox	Name taken from the last name of drummer, John Zox.	Robert D. Arndt Jr.
Zu Zu's Petals	Heard them play in Lafayette, LA and asked the bass player. Named after what Jimmy Stewart finds in his pocket when talking to the angel in the movie, "It's A Wonderful Life". [Ed.'s note: Zu Zu is George Bailey's (Stewart) youngest daughter in the movie.]	Spazzam
Zuzu's Petals	The female trio took its name from the movie "It's A Wonderful Life", where George Bailey (Jimmy Stewart's character) finds flower petals given by his young daughter Zuzu, proof that he really exists. He exclaims, "Zuzu's petals!" in exultation.	sherock
ZZ Top	They're from down South, as most of us would know. And they were looking at the back of barn doors, and they noticed the Z's that the doors make. And that's how the name stuck. That's at least what I read in Rolling Stone.	Am
ZZ Top	According to Billy Gibbons, they are named after those 2 icons of the dope world, Zig Zag and Top cigarette papers.	The Corsican
ZZ Top	After Texas bluesman Z.Z. Hill.	rocker
ZZ Top	The band were stopping to get some food at a place called "Pizza Stop." However, some of the letters were not lit. The only letters illuminated were "zz top."	Mustang Dave
ZZ Top	The band would smoke lots of marijuana in their early years and it would make them sleepy. So they spelled POT and then put the ZZ for sleepiness and turned it around.	Tredotsky
ZZ Top	The band love big breasts (a la Pearl Necklace, one of their songs, about frottage) and ZZ Top refers to the largest conceivable bra size (double Z)	Johnny Soporno
ZZ Top	Zig-Zag and Top rolling papers	Scott
ZZ Top	ZZ Ranch in Mexico.	Rhino
ZZ Top	Someone else on here said they combined two rolling paper names. Zig-Zag and Top. I heard it was a combo of Top the rolling paper and the design on the front of barn doors since they first played in barns.	Alex Hall
ZZ TOP	I read once it was was actually to recreate the BB-King name feeling. 2 same letters + word.	Fred
ZZ Top	Probably has nothing to do with rolling papers, and more to do with honoring texas-born bluesman ZZ Hill.	Dave
ZZ Top	I read somewhere (years ago) in an interview that "ZZ" was selected to be the last LP in the alphannumeric sorted row in a record store. So "ZZ Top" is something like "Last is first"	bernd hohmann
ZZ Top	It's a word play on two of the more popular brands of rolling papers, Zig-Zag and Top...	john m
ZZ Top	Billy Gibbons said that "ZZ Top" was a play on his favorite guitarist, "BB King"	Todd
ZZ Top	The band picked this name so that their records would always be last in a record store (who's gonna beat ZZ?), making it easier for fans to find them.	Joshua Self
ZZTop	The actual ZZTOP website says that Billy Gibbons wanted the band's albums to be at the very back of the record stores! Hence, the name that would guarantee them end-of-alphabet status.	Pete

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