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Names -> Band Name Origins -> B, Page 4
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: | ||
| The Blues Magoos | The "Magoo" part came from the time the band members went to a Chinese restaurant, and were inspired by the name "moo goo gai pan." The "Blues" part is self-explanatory, but it was originally spelled "Bloos." | Rufus | ||
| Blues Magoos | The opposite of what 'oldschool' said, the band's original manager was eating Moo Goo Gai Pan in a Bronx Chinese restaurant and thought of the latter part as short for the dish. The 'Blues' part was for their love for R&B. | Brenda | ||
| Blues Traveler | In high school, the band was simply called "Blues Band" and was inspired by Dan Akroyd and Blues Brothers. The Traveler is from Ghostbuster's demon Gozer the Traveller. | Popper Fan | ||
| Blur | Blur were originally called Seymour, but the record company people thought they could never make it with that name so they had to come up with a new one. After a lot of hard thinking they chose Blur just because it sounded as if the record company people might like it, and they did. | easy | ||
| Blur | Blur were originally called Seymour, but the record company didn't like it and drew up a list of new names, as did the group. "Blur" was the only name found on both lists. (They almost went with 'The Shining Path!' Ugh.) | Alexis | ||
| Blur | The band was originally called Seymour, named for a character from a series of short stories by George Orwell. When signed by their label they were informed that Seymour was a stupid name, so a list of potential names was drawn up. Blur was chosen ahead of other candidates such as Sensitize, Whirlpool, and The Shining Path. | Hard Harry | ||
| Blur | Out of all the names that Andy Ross and Dave Balfe suggested, they felt that was the best. Allegedly, they hated the name at first. | Bobo | ||
| BoA | Korean: her name Kwon Bo-a and also backronyms for Best of Asia and Beat of Angel | Robert D. Arndt Jr. | ||
| Boards of Canada | They based their name on the "National Canadian Film Board" as they derive a great influence from the public-television type films that they produced. | dustin | ||
| Boards of Canada | Named after the Techno duo's childhood love of nature films, made by the film board of Canada. | ssssss | ||
| Bob Dylan | According to Bob, in his book Chronicles, he actually did select the name Dylan from the poet Dylan Thomas. Hence, Robert Zimmerman became Bob Dylan. He didn't want to keep his real name because another Bobby Zimmerman, at the time, was a motorcycle racer that had crashed and died. | Eldon | ||
| Bob Dylan | It was neither Dylan Thomas or some fictional uncle. He chose his name because of his childhood affection for Marshall Matt Dillon in the TV show Gunsmoke. | Prada-Meinhof | ||
| Bob Dylan | Robert Zimmerman took his new last name not from Dylan Thomas, as is often assumed, but from an uncle "Dillion." (People Almanac 2000) | gloria | ||
| Bob Seger and the Silver Bullet Band | Bob Seger is the man's name but the Silver Bullet Band is named after the legendary Silver Bullet. A very hot Hemi powered '67 Plymouth GTX that cruised and raced around Detroit back in the day when Gratiot and Woodward Avenues where dominated by street racers. To this day that grey GTX has never been beaten. What else would a bunch of Detroit rockers that worked in an auto assembly plant name their band after. This info can't exactly be researched in Rolling Stone Mag but I know its true because my mothers freind dated Seger back in the 60s. Take it for what it's worth. | barrucuda | ||
| The Bobs | The San Francisco rising stars of a-capella were named for an acronym for "Best of Breed." | zap | ||
| BoDeans | "BoDeans" comes from taking the first and last syllables respectively from "BO Diddley" and "James DEAN", 2 cultural icons. | Everybody Free | ||
| Bon Iver | From the French phrase meaning "good winter", bon hiver. | Alex | ||
| Bon Jovi | Named after John Bongiovi who changed hs name when the band formed in 1983 to Bon Jovi so people could pronounce it easier. John recorded 20 songs at the Power Station Studios in New York City while in High School, which were produced by John's Cousin Award Winning Producer Tony Bongiovi. These tracks were released in 1997 on two cd's. The Power Station Years:1980-1983, and More Music from The Power Station Years. Check them out, any true fan should appreciate them. | usarmyusmc | ||
| Bon Jovi | Jon's last name is Bongiovi. So they mixed it up a little and became "Bon Jovi" and personally i have always wondered if this has caused any onimosity within the band. Evidently not, they've been together 20 years or whatever. But they rock! | Sydney | ||
| bon jovi | It is true that the band is named after Jon, but he never changed his name (officially) to "Bon Jovi". | Hannah | ||
| Bond Three | The name was taken from the three (at the time) James Bond movies there were starring Pierce Brosnan. In the words of lead singer C.J. he was "the best Bond ever." | La Choy | ||
| Bondi Cigars | Names after the brown fecal thingies found floating amongst the surf at a popular Sydney beach. | dissonance | ||
| Bone Thugs N Harmony | Bone started out called B.O.N.E. Enterpri$e. This stood for three things - Buddah'd Out Niggaz Everyday, Brewed Out Niggaz Everyday, and Beating on Niggaz Everyday. They then took the BONE and added it to Thugs N Harmony, because they are thugs with a harmonic rap style. | Nemesis | ||
| Bonedaddy | Bone was the nickname given to singer/guitar player Jeremy's daughter. When they were coming up with a name someone suggested Daddy Bone which became Bonedaddy. | jer | ||
| Boney M | They were into legendary 50s rock 'n' roll singer Ritchie Valens. They shortened one of his songs "Boney Maroney" into Boney M. | avinash inamdar | ||
| Boney M | Producer Frank Farian named the band after Boney, an Australian TV hero. | Mr. X | ||
| Boney M | I've just heard it on the radio that Boney M was named after Bonaparte Napoleon, who was called Boney in his childhood, M stands for music | Periklesz | ||
| Boney M | Periklesz is mistaken! Boney was the hero of an Australian TV series. | Richard Braithwaite | ||
| Bonnie Guitar | Bonnie is her real first name, and she chose "Guitar" as part of her stage name because she plays the guitar a lot. | Lefty Lucy | ||
| Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band | Singer and multi-instrumentalist Viv Stanshall was a big fan of Bonzo Dog, a British cartoon character, and the whole band was into the concept of "Dada" art. They changed it from "Dada" to "Doo-Dah" because announcers at the clubs they played couldn't get it right, and eventually dropped the "Doo-Dah" altogether by their second album. This band is known for influencing Monty Python; one of the members of the Bonzos, Neil Innes, wrote songs for the Pythons and played Sir Robin's Minstrel in Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Innes later went on to become famous for the Rutles, a parody of the Beatles for which he wrote all the music. | mark | ||
| The Boo Radleys | After the character Boo Radley in the book and movie "To Kill A Mockingbird". | newsong | ||
| Booker T and the MG's | Whilst dining in a flapjack café in Welwyn Garden City, the band had been ordering tea and coffee all day. The waitress had lost track of the tab, so the drummer said to her "book a tea" when compiling the bill. Once outside the café, the waitress was leaving and her pet chihuahua was run over by an MG sports car. The rest is history. | Zeeb | ||
| Booker T. & The MG's | "Booker T." comes from the band leader's name: Booker T. Jones. Jones was also in another band called The Triumphs. According to an early album cover, Al Jackson suggested another car name for this new group, The MG's (Stax record producer Chips Moman loves MG's and owned a red one.) Concern about using the motor company's name wihtout their permission led them to re-enginerr MG to stand for "Memphis Group." | David B | ||
| Booker T. & the MG's | The band leader was Booker T. Jones. MG stands for "Memphis Group". | David B | ||
| BoomKat | BoomKat was originally Kat. It Stood K for Kellin Manning AT from TAryn Manning | David | ||
| Boomtown Rats | I actually saw the band interviewed on a kids' TV show in the 1980's where they said they looked in the phone book for interesting names, foiund a man called Mr Rat, so phoned him up to see what his first name was, and he said "Boomtown". But I think they may have been fooling around.... | Agent Doug | ||
| Boomtown Rats | In his autobiography, 'Is This It?', Bob Geldolf read a book about the rough & tumble days of the Oklahoma oil rush of the 1920s and one gang in the town called themselves Boomtown Rats. | dkb | ||
| BORC | This was a Michigan band in the late 60's. The name is from the first letter of each members last name. Bannister, Orr, Rimby and Clouse. | Rondo | ||
| Borstak Breakout | Simply a song from Sham 69's first album | Jim | ||
| Borstal Break Out | Keith in my family gave me tips how to be in a band and what to call my band like '' Borstal Break out '' something like that. But he said that there was already a band called '' Borstal Break out '' but us 2 think there called there band '' Borstal Break out '' because ones they committed a crime and then they were arrested and taken to a Borstal for the time being then a little while after they broke out and ran away from the prison from the police and the courts far away from then then a while later they called there band '' Borstal Break out '' because what happened to them that time it happened. | Gary | ||
| Bouncing Souls | named for the pull tab on the back of Dr. Martens boots, only they changed the spelling of soles to souls... | Bomberman | ||
| Bowling For Soup | The band was named after a comedy act "Bowling For S***". They just changed "S***" to "Soup". | Alexis | ||
| Bowling For Soup | They were once so poor and they were great at bowling so they bowled and once the other person lost the payed them with a free hotdog or can of soup. | Jack switz | ||
| Bowling For Soup | "It started as a Steve Martin joke on his 'Wild and Crazy Guy' album. He says he wrote a book called 'Bowling for Sh**'. We didn't think anyone would put that on a flyer so we went with Bowling for Soup. Originally we were called Rubberneck." From an interview with Bowling for Soup member Chris Van Malmsteen | shmoe | ||
| Bowling for Soup | The lead singer was watching the Simpsons one day, in which, Homer went bowling. And he was eating dinner, which just happen to be soup and bread. When the record company called him to tell him that the critics liked the music and asked for the band's name. So, without thinking, he said the first thing that popped into his head, Bowling for Soup. The other band members were kind of mad at him, but the name stuck. Think about what would happen if dinner would've been, rump roast! | Becky | ||
| Bowling For Soup | The lead singer and the lead guitarist were argueing about a band name so they finaly decided to to call it Bowl of Soup. However,the other band members thought it was super stupid(I agree), so the drummer said why don't we call it bowling For soup. he did this because he loved bowling | Ashleigh | ||
| Bowling For Soup | The band put random words into a hat and picked out 'bowling', 'for', and soup.' It's that simple. | Katifer | ||
| Bowling for Soup | When they were first starting out, every time they performed they changed it to something else, like "Bowling for Socks". When they were on there would-be last show, they called themselves "Bowling for Soup". When they decided not to split, the name stuck. I know this. I OFFICIALLY asked them, as I have met them. | Sam1313 | ||
| The Box | This Montreal band played in nightclubs, which in French are referred to as "boîtes de nuit" [night boxes]. From there, they called themselves The Box. | Pierre Savoie | ||
| Box Car Racer | Revelations in the Bible speaks about the end of the world, and Tom Delonge was wondering if World War II was what the Revelations spoke about. The second bomb that was dropped on Japan was from a plane called Bockscar, but commonly misspelled Boxcar. "it kind of really freaked me out. At that point I didn't even want the name, but it was way too late. I blame Travis for that one." - Tom | The Fonz | ||
| Boy George | Boy George wanted to make sure that everybody knew that he was a male. Many people mistaken him to be a homosexual, but he really isn't. Weird but true. He was embarrassed about his obesity, so he smothered himself in a ton of make-up so people wouldn't know about his fatness. | Tiger No. 27 | ||
| Boyracer | Contrary to what you might think, they didn't get their name from a Morrissey song. It was actually taken from the teenage boys who set up illegal drag races down the main street of their hometown of Wetherby, England on summer nights. | The Skuz | ||
| Boys Aloud | This is a cool mixture of the fact that the boys in this pop/rock band know no limits to how high the decibels from their amps pound, smartly combined with the idea that they are allowed, allowed to do anything they want. | Adly McCook | ||
| Boyz II Men | They were discovered by New Edition - their idols - member Michael Bivins, so they named themselves Boyz II Men after a New Edition song ("Boys To Men"). | Lindsey | ||
| Boyz II Men | orignally the Unique Attraction the members got the name from the New Edition song Boys To Men. Shawn Stockman didn't like at first but finally gave in | GXD | ||
| Boyzone | It was a competition on a Saturday morning programme and the entry picked was Boyzone. (It's sad that I know this!) | Mr Sad Man | ||
| Boyzone | Unknown where this name came from but chosen ahead of Stephen Gately's idea - Boys only | Nicole | ||
| BR5-49 | It was the phone number of Junior Samples' used car lot on "Hee Haw." | crazydon | ||
| Brainerd | Original guitarist, Knife, names band after home-town (Brainerd, Minnesota). | Robert D. Arndt Jr. | ||
| Brand New | All the band members had been playing together for years and they picked the name Brand New for irony's sake, because they weren't really doing anything new. | Burke | ||
| Bread | The Band were trying to decide on a new name while at lunch when they saw a Bread truck drive by, they all looked at each other and the rest is history | Leah | ||
| Breaking Benjamin | The lead singer of the band, Benjamin Burnley and he ex-drummer of the band, Jeremy Hummel, founded this band. When performing at a local show, Benjamin broke the microphone after he finished singing. Thus, the name came up. 2 memebers from Lifer joined the band. Then it changed its name to Plan 9. It didn't work very well, and Jeremy Hummel left the band and slapped a federal lawsuit on the remaining band members claiming that he wasn't paid for the songs he helped write. The band then changed their name back to Breaking Benjamin. | cR@zYfR0gE$$ | ||
| Breaking Benjamin | The lead singer of the band (Benjamin Burnley) was having a bad day again. Someone asked what was the matter, but he commented that they would not understand so he left a note to his girlfriend that said "I'm sorry I...had a bad day again". To make a long story short, he swore that nothing was wrong and then started to turn his bad feelings into songs. They put him up and they put him on....on stage....at a concert. When it was his turn to go on at a local battle of the bands concert, he was asked his bands name and he said....Breaking Benjamin. | greg fieser | ||
| Breaking Benjamin | They used to be Strangers With Candy and had to change their name when the Comedy Central show threatened to sue. There's no underlying secret, they just thought up another name. | i'm from W-B | ||
| Breaking Benjamin | ONe day Benjamin (the singer) was at a talent show of some sort before the band was getting together and he broke the microphone. and the host guy came out and said " i would like to thank benjamin for breaking my f***ing microphone" and thats how they came up with it. Breaking Benjamin | frankee | ||
| Breaking Benjamin | They were never, ever called Strangers With Candy. Strangers With Candy became Driver then Lifer. Then members of SWC migrated the Breaking Benjamin who used to be Plan 9. | STRANGER4LIFE | ||
| Breaking Benjamin | If I remember correctly, what I read is that Ben Burnley, the singer, was at a show once and one of the bands on stage went on and said, "We'd like to thank Ben for breaking our sh*t", and the name was born. | sXe LeXi 5X2 | ||
| Breaking Benjamin | The lead singer Benjamin Burnley was playing a local show and covering a Nirvana song. At the end of his set he followed Kurt Cobain's example and threw the mic down and it broke. The person who owned the mic came on stage and said "I'd like to thank Benjamin for breaking my microphone". After this the band Lifer, who have also been called Strangers with Candy and Driver, broke up and two of the band members joined Breaking Benjamin. This is the official story obtained off of "shallowbay.com". | Jeff Wood | ||
| Breaking Benjamin | The band was once contemplating a name for this band. They wanted a quick and easy name to do and remember. Since the singers name is Ben Burley, they took his first name, Benjamin, and just came up with a random word that sounded good together. ALSO. If you look at their band logo, it consists of 4 "letter B's" arrange at different angles. | Mr. X | ||
| Breaking Benjamin | The member Benjamin would always break the microphone, so they called the group Breaking Benjamin, history was made. | Some guy eating almonds | ||
| The Breeders | “Breeder” is a slang used by homossexuals in Dayton, Ohio (where the band is from) to refer to straight people. Kim and Kelly Deal named their first band The Breeders during their teens, and Kim revived the name later when she started a side-project in 1990, while she was still playing in The Pixies. | Muzza | ||
| Brides of Destruction | Nikki Sixx, bass player in Brides of Destruction (also Motley Crue), said in an interview that they didn't use their first name pick, Cockstar, because record company CEOs didn't like it, second pick Motordog was taken, and "Brides of Destruction is about the coolest name since Lords of the New Church." | Marianne | ||
| Bright Eyes | I had always thought the name had come from Edgar Allen Poe's Annabel Lee. Due to alot of Conor Oberst's repeating lyrics and concepts are also components of the poem. | Again. | ||
| Bright Eyes | when the group was trying to make it in the big music world, they had gone to so many different producers in hopes to be "discovered." unforunately, time after time, they were thrown aside and harshly criticized. finally when they wrote their one and ONLY good song, "Lover I Don't Have To Love" their record deal was signed and their new managers eyes were wide and bright. they were so proud of their accomplishment that they wanted to remember the moment forever. | kate | ||
| Bright Eyes | Taken from the Planet of the Apes, where Charlton Heston is nicknamed "Bright Eyes". | Lewis | ||
| Bright Eyes | Further to Kate's pile of rubbish, Conor Obersts musical project was named Bright Eyes several albums before "Lover I don't have to Love", after oberst heard a man call a woman it in a film and it stuck. Had Kate also bothered to have any accurate info at all, Oberst didn't have to chase producers, and has released all his albums on the label he co-founded, and has worked with the same producer, Mike Mogis, on every album. | Qi | ||
| Bright Eyes | The name "Bright Eyes" most likely refers to a movie that Conor watched as a child, in which the male protagonist uses the term to affectionately refer to the female protagonist. Another theory involves the expression on the producer's face regarding the success of "Lover I don't have to love", although that theory is highly unlikely considering Conor had previously recorded under the name "Bright Eyes" several years before the release of "Lover I don't have to Love." | Jeff | ||
| Bring Me The Horizon | They acquired their name based on a line taken from the film Pirates of the Caribbean, in which Captain Jack Sparrow shouts "Now... Bring me that horizon." They slightly altered the original line by simply changing 'that' to 'the' | Syn_Torn | ||
| Brutal2ThEar | Tyler once said that, with the way they looked, they'd probably do better with bags over their heads. The original name of the band was "Brutal to the Eye". | Chris | ||
| BTOB | Born TO Beat | Robert D. Arndt Jr. | ||
| Bubba Sparxxx | Born and Raised in Georgia. He was always the youngest, running around, getting dirty. His family started calling him Bubba. Like, "Bubba, get yo' ass in the tub." He also thought, "What better name for a white dude from the South than Bubba?" Sparxxx is the hip-hop side. Like, "Let's spark it." The xxx is the unknown variables, expect the unexpected. | Wolveroses | ||
| Buck O Nine | They were use to drink, at band practice, a 40 boats of beer that worth 1.09 buck | John | ||
| Buckcherry | Buckcherry turned around is Chuck Berry. | foxy | ||
| Buckcherry | Buckcherry was the name of a transvestite who used to come to their shows. | MantlePicture | ||
| Bucket | During the usual band dilemma of trying to find a good name, this band named themself after a big bucket sitting on the floor of their rehersal studio. The purpose of the bucket was to catch the drip from the leaky toilet above. | Jun Heider | ||
| Buckethead | When Brian was young he ate at a KFC and stuck the empty bucket on his head as a joke, and it stayed there afterwords which resulted in the literal naming of Buckethead. Taken from Buckethead's Secret Recipe DVD. | zxcymn | ||
| Buddy Holly And The Crickets | Actually, the name was chosen because the historical reel-to-reel demos were recorded in the drummer's garage after dark, and when they listened to the playback you could hear crickets in the background between songs and sometimes in quiet passages. | Matthew K. | ||
| Buffalo Springfield | It was on the back of a parked steamroller. | rock | ||
| Buffalo Springfield | The Springfield Machinery Co. made a steamroller called the "Buffalo". The logo was the word Springfield in an arched letter configuration with the word 'buffalo' more prominent in the middle of the arch. the group saw a parked "Springfield ~ Buffalo" and called themselves Buffalo Springfield unaware they had it backwards. | Jim Kuza | ||
| The Buggles | When Trevor Horn, Geoff Downes and Bruce Wooley were rehearsing in a tiny flat in London (and writing Video Killed The Radio Star) they kept making jokes about how they would never be as big as "the buggles" (i.e. The Beatles). Guess they were right! Geoff Downes recalls this in the liner notes of the CD of debut album "The Age of Plastic" | Pete | ||
| bump.y | It stands for Brilliant, Universal, Miracle, Power, the period is intended to represent "moving freely", and finally Youthful. | Lefty Lucy | ||
| Burning Airlines | From the Brian Enos song "Burning Airlines Give You So Much More". | Professor Stampede | ||
| Burning The Bridge | When the guitar player was talking, he used the phrase "I don't want to go burning any bridges." Bass player Aaron Paul thought it over in his head before deciding that it would be a cool band name. | A.J.E. | ||
| Burnt Pope | They'd all had Catholic school education and agreed that this name would offend more of the people that they wanted to offend than any other. | dk | ||
| Bush | The real story is that there is a park near Gavin Rossdales house in London called Shepherds Bush. | Chris | ||
| Bush | The members of the band used to live near "Shepherd's Bush" in London. They were also formed in 1991, when the elder George Bush was President of the US. | Alan the Ottoman | ||
| Bush | The lead singer was going down on a bird and saw her Bush, VOILA!! | Idioteque | ||
| Bush | I heard on Howard Stern's show that lead singer Gavin Rossdale said it was a reference to marijuana plants. | loki10 | ||
| Bush | The band has said its a mixture of a few things. 1. the band is from Shepards Bush, England. 2. They all smoke weed. 3. A slang for male and female genitalia | corinne | ||
| Bush X | Gavin didn't realize that there was a group in Canada that had the Name "Bush" so they had to add the X on the end until 1997 when the Original band "Bush" allowed Gavin to use their name. | Celeste |
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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