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).
The 20 most recent entries are listed below. There are 4354 Band Name Origin entries on the site.
Name | Origin | Submitted by: | ||
| Lady GaGa | From Queen's song "Radio GaGa" | Alex | ||
| Maroon 5 | This is just something I heard: Jane of Songs About Jane fame plays a burgundy Rickenbacker bass...Burgundy 5 just doesn't have a nice ring to it and Maroon 5 was born... | Sarah Meseberg | ||
| Alesana | Derived from where they lived in Baltimore before officially forming as a band, on Alice-Anna Street. | Alex | ||
| The Smashing Pumpkins | Billy had an ex-girlfriend from a small city outside Chicago which was popular in the area for pumpkin patches. After they broke up Billy named the band smashing pumpkins as a knock on his ex. | Sean | ||
| Skyhooks | The Australian band Skyhooks supposedly got their name from a fictional organisation that appears in the film Earth vs. the Flying Saucers. | Dr Gonzo | ||
| Elliot Minor | Elliot Minor is named after the character, Elliot from the television show Scrubs. | Siani | ||
| RAMEKEGA | We used the first 2 letters of the original members' names, RAchel, MElissa, KElli and GAbrielle It was a a userid our dad had used for a game we used to play as kids called "Where in the world is Carmen Sandiego" It's pronounced "rah-me-kay-gah" and it just fit. We wanted to be known for our music first, then our name. If the music's good, the name will be known; if the music's not good ... forget you ever knew us! | Melissa | ||
| Crosby Stills Nash & Young | It is the last names of the band members. Note that Neil Percival Young was born with that name on 11-12-1945 in Toronto, Canada. | DJ | ||
| DIDO | She was texting her friend about her weekend and accidentally misspelled "DILDO". Her friend said "Don't you mean 'FIDO'?...that's gross" She was drunk the night she texted, and her tea went cold the morning after when she was late for work again. After getting fired for being late, she went home to find out what she did the night before because she couldn't remember. She checked her sent messages on her phone and saw the word "DIDO" which she later used in pub gigs as her singing name although it was a personal joke. | BXA | ||
| Remedy Drive | This christian band of four brothers from Lincoln, Nebraska is comprised of David, Philip, Paul and Dan Zach. They formed in the mid 1990's and originally were called The Aslan Band (after the lion in the Narnia books). They soon changed their name to Remedy, alluding to Christ being the only remedy for sin, but heard another band already was using that name. So they lengthened their name to "Remedy Drive" to point to the drive we all have for something to fill the void in our souls. | derekthered | ||
| Yo Lo Tengo | Several members of the band are big fans of the New York Mets and the name comes from a funny story about the 1962 Mets, the worst baseball history in the 20th Century. Elio Chacon was their eager young shortstop who knew no English. Because of this, he often ran into (and sometimes knocked down) the centerfielder Richie Ashburn when a fly ball went between the infield and outfield. Charley Neal, the Thirdbaseman noticed this issue and told Ashburn that anytime a flyball was in question he should yell "Yo Lo Tengo" (I've got it) and Chacon will backoff. The next time a ball like that came Ashburn's way, he yelled "Yo Lo Tengo!" but was still knocked down-- this time by Frank Thomas, the leftfielder. Charles and Ashburn never let Thomas in on the Yo Lo Tengo strategy. | Neil Spagna | ||
| Killswitch Engage | The origin submitted by Luke Thomas is bogus. The name Killswitch Engage was picked 4 years before they had a new singer. I know some of the members of the band personally, so I know for a fact that it is not true. | Me | ||
| August Burns Red | The original vocalist was dating a girl named August who he wanted to break up with. When he broke up with her, she got really mad. The vocalist also had a dog named Redd. August went to his house and burned his dog Redd alive in his dog house. The next day the front page of the local newspaper said "August Burns Redd" they just dropped one of the "d" in the name. | Von | ||
| 3 Colours Red | Picked randomly from the movie section of Londons 'Time Out' magazine around the time of the French movies U.K release. | Jim | ||
| Pantera | I was in the Abbotts living room when their original bass player, Tommy Bradford, came up with the suggestion. It was the car. It sounded cool. Period. | Spear Ruler | ||
| 12 Stones | The name came from a biblical passage about the 12 stones collected by the Israelites after crossing the Jordan river | matt | ||
| 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 | ||
| Shihad | I interviewed the band at a radio station called LFM I work at and they said that the name came from the sentence 'she had my balls in her mouth' honest, no joke | richard whale | ||
| Kill Hannah | The lead singer, Mat Devine, named the band after his ex-girlfriend, Hannah. After they both had a falling out, he made stickers he put on a record with the words, 'Kill Hannah' on them.. | Long | ||
| Story of the Year | Story of the Year started out as a band called Big Blue Monkey in 1999. They were locally popular in St. Louis, Missouri, their home town. In 2001, they changed the name of the band after becoming aware that there was another locally popular blues band who had taken Big Blue Monkey as a band name long before they did. They became Story of the Year because this name was the title of thier very first EP, as well as the title of the very first song on that EP. | Kieran T. |
New entries in this section are currently reviewed by Karen. Previous editors (if any) are listed on the editors page.
The Top Ten Contributors To This Section
| Bobo (site rank #4) | 142 |
| Chris (site rank #46) | 23 |
| Mike | 18 |
| Eric | 18 |
| Roderick | 14 |
| Kyle | 14 |
| Ben | 13 |
| Brian Kelly (site rank #9) | 13 |
| Mark | 13 |
| Alex (site rank #32) | 12 |
Submissions
Got something that should be added to this page? Check out the submission form.
