C, Page 2

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 4774 Band Name Origin entries on the site.

Name	Origin	Submitted by:
Chumbawamba	They ACTUALLY got the band name based on a dream that the guitarist had. He had a dream in which he was at a club where the bathrooms said "Chumba" and "Wamba" instead of Men and Women. They decided because of the general mix of men and women in the group, it was an appropriate name.	Martin
Chumbawamba	I heard in a radio interview one time that Chumbawamba is a slang term for the roll of fat on the back of a bald man's head.	darkdaimon
Chumbawamba	the band went to a concert in a foreign country. After the concert they all had to go to the washroom. On the men's door it said Chumba and on the womens door it said Wamba, they thought it was a cool name so they called themselves Chumbawamba.	nicole
ChumbaWamba	One of the band members had a dream wherein there were a lot of freaky people dancing about and shouting "Chumba! Wamba!" over and over again. Chumba means man, and Wamba means woman.	Alli
Chumbawamba	The name came from a dream that one of the band members had. Chumba is Brit slang for Men's room, and wamba is slang for women's room. In the dream the band member went to the rear of a club, and there was only one door that read Chumbawamba. He told the rest of teh group about it, and it eventually became the band name.	Bob
Chumbawumba	Ever hear the saying 'if you give a chimpanzee a typewriter it will eventually write Shakespeare ? Well some scientist type blokes decided to give it a try....Chumbawumba is one of the 'words' the chimps typed !	Lee
Chumbawumba	Chumbawumba is an exclamation of one of the Ewoks in Return of the Jedi, whilst falling over having seen C3PO...	TKD_Tigger
Chumbawumba	In 1978, a group of scientists in nevada tried the 'thousand monkeys with a thousand typewriters' bit. Of the 18,000 words written after ten months, only two were pronouncable: "Elorytham" and "Chumbawumba". The band chose one of them.	Joe Mahon
Chumbawumba	There is another possibility. I read in a magazine that one day 2 members were messing around w/ a computer just hitting buttons w/ a blinfold on. When they took it off Chumbawumba was there!	JLI_NHykwim
Chumbawumba	Ok, here's the actual story ... one of the band member's, while sleeping one night, had a dream in which he was in a high class restaurant with his fellow bandmates. He got up to go to the restroom, and on the doors, instead of "men" and "women", was written "chumba" and "wumba". So, the name means (in some dreamed up language, I suppose) men-women, to signify the gender-friendly views of the band.	matt
Chumbawumba	On the BBC new program, "Have I Got News For You" they said it was called Chumbawumba because it evolved from "Chimp eat Banana".	JOHN
Chumbawumba	From what I heard: The band chose the name from an expiriment done on monkeys. A room full of monkeys was hypothesized to be able to type out the complete works of Shakespeare on typewriters. The theory was a total failure and the best word the monkeys were able to type was 'Chumbawumba'.	Dixie Chicken
Chumbawumba	There is a theory that monkeys typing will eventually type out the complete works of Shakespeare. Chumbawumba is a phrase taken from the monkey's typing.	YASMR
Chumbawumba	TO WEB HOST: Just wanted to let you know that Chrissy posted one for Chumbawumba that is very, very incorrect. She made reference to chimpanzees on typewriters. The sketch was done by Bob Newhart, and what the monkey typed was "To be or not to be, that is the Gazerninblatz." Chumbawumba had absolutely nothing to do with Newhart's sketch. Don't know if you care, but if you're into making sure positively erroneous material isn't posted, might want to remove that one. Check out Newhart's routine personally if you want to make sure. Jeremie	Jeremie Christian
The Church	I discovered the origin of the band name on their official web site (http://www.thechurchband.com). In Peter Koppes guitarrist section of the site, he says: "We used to rehearse in a local church hall and Steve's band used to play there too." It was in that chuch the two members of different bands get together to make a new band they called "The Church". But many people think it has a mystical reason, because of the peculiar music of the band.	Caio
Cibo Matto	This Japanese duo got its moniker from the Italian translation of "food madness". Apparently, they love food.	neworld
Cinderella	One night they were reading a TV Guide of sorts and came across a porno by the name "Cinderella". Cool!	joebeastyg78
Citizen King	A wordplay on the movie "Citizen Kane" in which the title character (played by Orson Welles) has seen "better days".	oldster
CKY	CKY stands for Camp Kill Yourself. CKY's frontman, Deron Miller, is a big fan of horror movies, and he thought it was a cool name because it would make a great horror movie name.	Taylor
CKY	Hey, NameMaster? CKY stands for Camp Kill Yourself. They confirmed this in Rocksound a while back.	suteneko
CKY	Short for "Camp Kill Yourself." Main influence on the name of the band is from the movie "Sleepaway Camp." A 1982 horror classic about a young girl deprived of a normal child-hood who goes on a killing spree at her camp, "Camp Arawak." Two sequals were later made in 1988 and frontman of CKY turned into such a big fan of the movies, he named his band after it.	Kevin Winowski
CKY	Deron Miller, the lead singers cousin died when the band first came together. Her name was Charlotte Katia York. As all the band members were close to her they dedicated there band name to her.	NameMaster
CKY (Camp Kill Yourself)	Deron Miller, the lead singer, was always into horror movies and thought it would be the perfect title to a movie, but instead used it for a band name	Jamie
Clannad	Abbreviated from their Gaelic original name An Clann As Dobhar (or A family of the townland of Dore).	irish
The Clash	They used to be called 101'ers. But after Terry Chimes joined on drums, they changed to The Clash after the favourite word of U.K Tabloid writers (every headline was a clash, a storm or a fury).	Rys Evans
The Clash	They got the name from Paul Simonon reading the Evening Standard and the word CLASH kept appearing( Ref Westway to the World). It was not the album "Two Sevens Clash", though this was a popular record with them. It certainly was not the graffiti under the westway, because they were the ones that sprayed it.	Simon Zero
Clash	'Two Sevens Clash' a 1976 LP by reggae band Culture, whose title tune refers to the upcoming Apocalypse in 1977	clash
The Clash	I've read that they named themselves after the reggae song "Two Sevens Clash" by Culture. They were really into reggae, after all.	Michelle
Clash	Bassist Paul Simonon noticed that the word "clash" appeared over and over in the paper, referring to various riots and etc, and when he proposed it to the rest of the band as a potential name, they liked it for its strong (social) connotations.	Geoff
The Clash	They actually got the name from some graffti sprayed on one of the pillars holding up The Westway not from a reggae LP	Dave
Clash	Ardent reggae devotees - they named themselves after the classic Culture LP, Two Sevens Clash.	Colin
The Clash	paul simonon the bass player saw it in a paper as a headline	emma
Clear Light	One mid-1960's "psychedelic" album on Elektra; named for the "clear light" period of an LSD trip, after the intense buzz, when the tripper's "lessons" from his/her trip become clear.	Country Paul
Clear White LIght	Lead guitarist Mick Barker chose it because of the drugs reference. CWL were a merger between Risky Stuff and Termite Reformation.	Dale Rumbold
The Click Five	The lead singer, Eric Dill, said in an interview that they were five guys who were snappy, clicky, and poppy (click being the coolest of the 3) and that they loved "The" bands, so they became The Click Five.	Backstreetgrl
Clock DVA	Despite what the guy wrote in the misc section of the website, this comes from the liner notes to Clock DVA's Collective album: "It was in 1978 when he (Adi Newton) founded Clock DVA with his best friend Steve Turner, taking the band's name from Anthony Burgess' novel "A Clockwork Orange" and giving it a meaning of "temporal deviation." The choice of the name intended to make clear the experimental nature of the band and it's strong will to explore every possible form of expression."	Bill
Clock Dva	if you dont have about Clock DVA name, then here it is = DVA means TWO in russian language,same in serbian langauge,and some other slavic langauages. so, the bands name means TWO O CLOCK	adam pett
Closed For Winter	I heard that the guitarist and bass player were walking through a park in Michigan and there was a "Closed For Winter" sign on the bathrooms and they thought it would be a good name.	Kevin Hartley
CMX	Short for cloaca maxima, which was the sewer complex in ancient Rome.	Kerpele
Coal Chamber	DEZ wanted to name the band coal , MEEGS wanted chamber so the just addded the names together hence the band name COAL CHAMBER	SKITTLES
The Coasters	Originally from L.A. and known as the Robins. When Lieber and Stoller (who wrote most of their songs) moved to Atlantic Records in N.Y. the group went with them and changed their name to show their roots "on the Coast".	Darryl Wilson
Cocteau Twins	Got its name from French impressionist Jean Cocteau. But, like The Thompson Twins, they are a trio and are not related (to Cocteau or each other).	electronic
Cocteau Twins	The long-time rumor concerning the Twins' name origin is that it came from a very obscure Simple Minds song.	Bryan McNeely
Coheed & Cambria	The science fiction stuff came way later, after they already recorded their first album. Not sure about Coheed, but Cambria [lastname] is the sister of one of their contemporaries in the Hudson Valley, NY scene. Not a science fiction character. Not a snake from a pet store.	Rob Eff
Coheed And Cambria	Named after 2 characters in the fictional story that Co&Ca are telling with their music, and related comics and graphic novels. Originally named "Shabutie".	Joel Waters
Coheed and Cambria	It's actually the name of the two main characters in the comic books they produce.	Ian
Coheed and Cambria	Coheed And Cambria are two fictional characters and all the albums made by the band are stories of the two characters.	God
Cold	They were originally called Grundig, but a german electronics company of the same name sued them and they had no ideas. They were sitting around with Wes Borland (formerly of Limp Bizkit) and upon hearing what happened to them said "man, that's cold"	Craig
Coldplay	They took the band name from Tim Crompton, a friend of the band, who was using for his band but suggested they use it. The word Coldplay comes from a book of poems, entitled "Child's Reflections, Cold Play" by Philip Horky	Dave
Coldplay	they took their name from a book of poems...that's it	Courtney
Coldplay	Coldplay was the nickname Chris Martin was given in high school because of his clammy hands and nervous tension towards women.	Will
Coldplay	They got the name from the beatles song "five second saunter" in ewhich paul sings " day after day, what can I say like in a cold play he stayed away."	Dave
Coldplay	Originally, their name was "Starfish", but at one show they decided the name was crappy, so they stole the name "Coldplay" from a roomate who had discarded it when thinking up a name for his own band. The actual word "coldplay" was found in a book of poetry.	Sara
Coldplay	Lead singer Chris Martin used to share a flat with the guitarist from another band, who called themselves Coldplay. As that band wasnt registered, and Chris's band had a crap name itself, Chris "borrowed" Coldplay. They were famous within one month.	I chew nails
Coldplay	The book of poetry they are named after is called "Child's Reflections, Cold Play" by Philip Horky.	Ellis Dee
Coldplay	It was the name of a band Chris Martin's friend was in at University. He (the friend) wasn't using it, and let Chris use it for his new venture instead.	Paul
Coldplay	It was the name of a fellow campus band that the boys knew while studying. The original Coldplay hadn't had any real success and hadn't registered the name so they stole it!	Peter Holmes
Coldplay	Possibly from the term to start playing to a crowd. Playing to a crowd but not being know COLD.	easyweb4u.co.uk
Coldplay	This band name was taken from a Beatles song that never made it out on any of their albums. Ringo has been quoted as saying, "Yes, that's where I've heard the words Cold Play. Years seem to fog the memory."	Daniel Carmen
Coldplay	They got the name from the Beatles song "five second saunter" in ewhich paul sings " day after day, what can I say like in a colp play he stayed away."	Dave
ColdPlay	Yes, Sara, Peter and I Chew Nails are all right about Coldplay but I think the guy who named the band originally probably named it after a Sparks' song as it song is spelled Coldplay as opposed to Cold Play, as per the other claims.	No! One Nose!
Collective Soul	Ayn Rand, in one of her novels used the term 'collective soul' to refer to mankind. Ed Roland, the vocalist for the band, had just finished reading that book and liked the idea and used it for his band name. He mentions it in one of the interviews for Rolling Stone magazine.	Ska
Collective Soul	The term was taken from a passage in one of my all time favorite books..."The Fountainhead" by Ayn Rand. If you ever read it, you'll find out that the collective soul is a very, very bad thing, however, so I'm not so sure why they wanted that as a band name.	StrangeAsAngels
Collective Soul	the awesome band got their name from a poem (forgot who did it) which said that ,"the soul will be collective," and they thought that their band was so good so they would be 'collecting souls'	just a random lyricist
Color Me Badd	Sam Watters said the name was an attempt to remove racial, sexual and musical overtones - "If you want to color us as anything, color us as badd." Originally called TAKE 1 (but another group was using the name), Jon Bon Jovi asked them to open a Bon Jovi / Skid Row concert with "Daddy's Home" sung a capella. Jon said, "You guys think you're pretty bad. Let's see how bad you are in front of 15,000 people."	Robert D. Arndt Jr.
Commodores	After trying for weeks to come up with a name for the band, the members all agreed to throw open a dictionary and the first word they pointed to would be there name. Lionel Richie said, "Just think...We were just a few words away from being the Comodes!	Rick McCreight
Common Rider	Named after a Japanese cartoon called Kamen Rider or Common Rider	Mister Bojangles
Communards	After the German Empire whipped the armies led by the overconfident and cocky Emperor Napoleon III, who was reckless and didn't think or care about any possibilities of error (can you say "Iraq" ?), an uprising erupted in Paris. It was styled the Commune of 1871 and the people who set it up were called Communards. This led to a bloody standoff where tens of thousands were killed before the Commune was finally overrun.	Violent Victorious Victor
Concrete Blonde	I heard that the members of the band were having a hard time picking a name. They asked REM frontman Michael Stipe to help out, and he came up with Concrete Blonde-something both hard and soft, like their music.	Bossk
Concrete Blonde	The name was given to them by Michael Stipe of R.E.M. - it is supposed to be a kind of self-contradiction, concrete being hard and blonde being soft.	JayS
Condom	They were in a pub toilet thinking of names and they saw a condom machine, so they thought the name Condom.	Condom
Condom	The lead singer is called Jonny - slang for Condom!	K.Y.L.E
The Constantines	Named after a gay S & M biker club.	Phil
Coolio	According to an interview he gave on British TV the name comes from "Coolio Eglasias", a nickname he was give because he used to play Spanish guitar which to his friends sounded like Julio Eglasias songs. After that he was always called 'Coolio'.	Calloomio
Cooper Temple Clause	The Cowper Temple clause was a piece of education legislation passed towards the end of the 19th centuary which meant kids could be excused from religious studies lessons. The band lifted it straight from that and just changed the spelling to Cooper.	Andrew
The Coral	I was watching this band do a photo shoot in Hoylake with a fake petrol bomb, anyway, I asked one of them how the thought of the name, they said they named it after a mouthwash called "Oracle" God knows how they got Coral from that but hey, it figures	jammy
Cormega	He picked Cormega as a play on his real name: Corey McCae.	blakklojik
Cornershop	Their lead singer is Indian-British. They chose the name based on the stereotype of the corner shop run by an Indian immigrant. (Think Apu from "The Simpsons".)	Brian Kelly
The Corrs	They'd considered "Cosmic Egg", but apparently their dad wasn't having any of it, so Andrea, Caroline, Sharon and Jim Corr went along with their surname. Good thing they weren't called Murphy or Fitzgerald or something, that just doesn't cling as well....	Saoirse
Cosmic Rough Riders	Two members of the band saw 2 posters in a shop doorway - one was advertising a club called Cosmic something-or-other, and the other was advertising Rough Rider jeans - they saw the words on the posters side-by-side and used it as their name.	debs
Counting Crows	from the lyrics of an early song......"on a hilltop, in the snow. and i saw you looking up, into that winter sky, as you stood there counting crows"	drock
Counting Crows	As much as I believe the story about Counting Crows, I'd like to dispell the myth about Counting Crows. One for sorry is when we count magpies, not crows. I am British born and lived in England for my entire life and have never heard the "divination" thing either and doubt if it is true, it may have been just put in the movie for effect (like the royale with cheese thing in "Pulp Fiction"...not true but makes the movie look good.)	No, One Nose!
Counting Crows	There's an English divination that goes "If you hang on to the flimsiness of anything you may as well be standing there counting crows..." They heard it quoted in the movie "Signs of Life" and took it as their name.	Amanda
Counting Crows	Adam Duritz mentioned in one interview that "It just refers to this rhyme wherein you count crows and you can tell your fortune by that: "One for sorrow, two for joy. Three for girls, four for boys."" It actually comes from a movie one of his best friends was in called Signs of Life. He was watching it while compiling a list of names for the band. There's this scene where these two guys are standing on a hillside trying to decide what to do with their lives, and a flock of crows flies by, and one of the guys said, "What was that line that your grandmother used to tell us about counting crows?"	beankurdt
Counting Crows	The band was named after a line from an old children's story. That's where the lyric came from also.	t
Counting Crows	According to the official line it comes from an old English divination rhyme (one for sorrow, two for joy, etc. Which is the line used in their song "Murder of One"). But being both old and English I can tell you in the UK that rhyme refers to Magpies not Crows. Dunno about the States.	Craig
Counting Crows	The name is from an old english divination that stated.. "If you hang on to the flimsyness of anything you may as well be standing there counting crows." The lyrics mentioned are from a song written long after the band was formed.	Amanda
Counting Crows	From an old English poem. The first part of the poem is mentioned in the song "Murder of One" "One for sorrow, two for joy, three for girls and four for boys...."	E
Counting Crows	The name comes from an old, old, old English poem the author of which is unknown. "If you hang on to the flimsiness of anything you may as well be standing there counting crows..." The band heard it quoted in a movie. called Signs of Life and adopted the term as the bands name	Rowlf
Counting Crows	they chose it from the old english rhyme about counting crows in the sky - ie one for sorrow, two for joy etc. they then used this rhyme in a song from their first album called "A murder of one".	John
Counting Crows	The name comes from an old English divination about life being as pointless as counting crows. It's also suggested that it's related to a children's rhyme about counting crows or magpies. This rhyme is included in the song "A Murder of One" [a murder is a flock of crows] on their 1st album "August & Everything After."	laura
Cousin Dale	Most people think it is the character from "National Lampoon's Vacation". It is actually Crispin Glover's character from the David Lynch movie "Wild at Heart". His character is actually named Dell, but with Laura Dern's (fake?) Southern accent, it comes out sounding more like Cousin Dale.	Josh
Cowboy Mouth	The phrase is from the one-act play "Cowboy Mouth" by Patti Smith and Sam Shepard. ("People want a street angel. They want a saint but with a cowboy mouth.") It's also used in a song by Dash Rip Rock (the band drummer Fred LeBlanc was in before he left and formed CM): "Johnny Ace" - "Workin' hard all night and always tried/ to be a rock 'n roll Jesus with a cowboy mouth". They live up to their name too.	Gingher
Cowboy Mouth	One other thing with Cowboy Mouth. There is a Sam Shepherd play by that name from 1971, but it may have gotten its name from Bob Dylan's "Sad Eyed Lady of the Lowlands" in 1966 ("with your cowboy mouth and your curfew plugs...") which was apparently about Joan Baez. The Shepard play is apparently partially about Dylan and Baez. http://home.wlu.edu/~blackburnj/shepard/cmouth.html.	Bob Smith
Cradle of Filth	Cradle is reffering to the manger Jesus slept in or whatever, and filth is pretty self explanatory.	Reemis
Cradle Of Filth	Word-play of the manger where Jesus was born.	[CARGO]
Craig's Brother	Scott, CB bassist, attended San Lorenzo Valley High with many of the other CB members. Scott's older brother, Craig, was a really cool football jock who everyone at school wanted to be friends with. When people recognized Scott as Craig's little brother, they would often ask him, "Hey, aren't you Craig's brother”? This was very annoying for Scott, but very amusing for his friends and bandmates. CB took the joke a step further, naming their band Craig's Brother”, assuring Scott's immortality. Ironically enough, naming the band Craig's Brother ended up prompting years of further irritation for not only Scott, but for everyone else as well. From the official FAQ	Kaysow
The Cramps	According to Poison Ivy Rorscharch (a.k.a., Kristy Wallace), the guitarist/songwriter/producer of The Cramps, the term, "cramps," is a dual-meaning: not only is it a reference to feminine cramps (you know--that "time of the month"), but is also slang for "erection." Additionally, she says, it also sounds like the name of a street gang (e.g., The Jets, The Crips, The Bloods, The Cramps).	Vincent Pall Frank II
The Cranberries	With original lead singer Niol Quinn, the band was called "The Cranberry Saw Us" because if you say it quickly, it sounds like "Cranberry sauce". When Dolores O'Riordan replaced him, she had the name shortened to "The Cranberry" and the band's demo tapes were labeled "The Cranberry's". The first one was returned addressed to "The Cranberries" and they decided to keep the name.	Brian Kelly
Cranes	Not named after the elegant birds, but the numerous large machines found on the docks of Jim and Alison Shaw's hometown of Portsmouth.	Jessica

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