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Names -> Band Name Origins -> D, 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).
Latest Entries
Entries starting with D are split into multiple pages: 1 2 3
There are 4774 Band Name Origin entries on the site.
Name | Origin | Submitted by: | ||
| Def Leppard | When the band was still in school, they used to practice in the basement of Joe Elliott's house. One day they decided on a name, and Joe told his mum. "The name of our band is The Leopards." His mum replied, "Well, you're going to be a bunch of deaf leopards if you keep playing that loudly." | Geno | ||
| Def Leppard | The lead singer, Joe Elliot, drew a picture of a leopard holding some kind of an instrument to his ear because he had a hearing problem. Thus the name Def Leppard came from Deaf Leopard. | JE$$IE R. | ||
| Def Leppard | Originally Atomic Mass. When Joe Elliott joined, he suggegested the name he thought of in school, which was origianlly spelled Deaf Leoppard. Changed the spelling and the rest is history my friends. | Def Leppard | ||
| Def Leppard | Joe Elliott, who provides the lead vocals, wanted to be a part of a band called DEAF LEOPARD when he was at school. He and several mates of his (Rick Savage and Steve Clark[dec.]) joined ATOMIC MASS in 1977. In order to make Joe's wish come true, the band changed its name to DEAF LEOPARD. Some time later, they changed the original spelling to DEF LEPPARD. | deflepparekool | ||
| Def Leppard | Lead singer Joe Elliott grew up in England, and was a big fan of Led Zeppelin. In school, he drew pictures on a folder of an imaginary album cover for a band named "Deaf Leopard." When he joined the band that eventually became Def Leppard, the band members changed the spelling, to make it appear more like Led Zeppelin | TC | ||
| Def.Diva | An abbreviation of "Definite Diva" | Nina | ||
| Deftones | Guitarist Stef originally thought of Steftones. From there, it became Deftones. | nichellenovak | ||
| Deftones | It's simply a combination of "deft" and ones" into a compound word, as in they are the Deft Ones. | Ben | ||
| The Deftones | i heard that the members would always tell chino he sang as if he was tone deaf so they named their band deftones | myname | ||
| Deftones | They said in an interview they named themselevs partially after the Def Jam label (because at the time Def Jam had many popular and respected hip-hop artists)... hence Def (tones). | god's unfunny sidekick | ||
| Deftones | Deftones is simply Tone Def backwards | FlameThrower | ||
| Deicide | It means "the murder of a god", from the Latin "deity" meaning "God", and the suffix "cide" meaning killing. | heavy metal | ||
| Deitiphobia | Literally means "fear of God" and was adopted as a cultural chastisement for American society's seeming abandonment of the Christian faith. | the speter | ||
| The Delgados | Named after Pedro Delgado, a cyclist who won the Tour De France once. | IJGrieve | ||
| Delirious? | It sounded similar to the redcord label run by Martin Smith Curious? along with the one Furious? - they liked it - so they ran with it! | Serenthia | ||
| Depeche Mode | Gore, Clarke, and Fletcher started DM as "Composition of Sound". When singer Dave Gahan was added, he suggested the name Depeche Mode, a name he stole from a French fashion magazine he saw in art school. The band didn't know what it meant at the time (loosely translated to "Hurried Fashion"), but thought it sounded modern and cool, for a while early on insisiting on being called Depeché Mode (pronounced Depeshay), though that pronunciation didn't catch on. | Modeman | ||
| Depeche Mode | They saw it in a magazine and thought it sounded cool. When asked by an interviewer if they knew that it meant "Lastest Fashion" they claimed that they didn't | Lily | ||
| Depeche Mode | 'Depeche Mode' translates colloquially as 'latest fashion' | Ron Thomson | ||
| Depeche Mode | French for Fast Fashion | Bobo | ||
| Depeche Mode | this name was introduced by David Gahan when he joined the band once called Composition Of Sound whose members were Vincent Clarke, Martin Gore and Andrew Fletcher. He took it by a french magazine dealing with fashion. Everybody thinks that its meaning is "fast fashion" but David explained that its real meaning is "news about fashion". | Mrs_Gahan | ||
| Depeche Mode | Named after a French fashion magazine "Dpche Mode" read by Vince Clark and Martin Gore - dpche is the French for a press dispatch. | goudurisk | ||
| Depeche Mode | I read an interview with them that said they stole it from a French Magazine . It means loosely means "fast fashion". | Carole | ||
| Derek & the Dominos | It was Eric Clapton's band, right after his first solo album came out, but he was too shy or reclusive to name the band after himself. So It was Derek instead of Eric so "nobody would know". The Dominos just fit, alliteratively. | dmitch | ||
| Derek and the Dominos | Eric Clapton and Duane Allman, dual super guitars....Duane + Eric = Derek | John Schneidhorst | ||
| Destiny's Child | There was a picture of the unnamed group in the Bible and on the page was the bolded word "Destiny". Because of their strong spirituality, they saw this as a sign from God and decided their band name should be Destiny. However, they realized that many bands in the past have had the name Destiny and thought their name should be a rebirth of Destiny, hence the name "Destiny's Child". | Spice808 | ||
| Destiny's Child | All the other stories aer wrong. Tina Knowles( Beyonce's mother was in the Bible.( I don't know for what reason.) But anywho she saw the word DESTINY and under it was CHILD. Destiny Child did not sound right so they said made Destiny a possesive noun. Hence the naem of the the 12 times platinum diva star super fine ass black gurl super sexy women group.............DESTINY'S CHILD~*^~*^~*^~*^ | Fabian | ||
| Destiny's Child | They had a boookmark in the bible and they turned to it and on the page it said destiny's child and they thought it was cool so they named them that. | Nick | ||
| Destiny's Child | One of their mom's opened her Bible. The page she opened it to was talking about destiny. They chose child because they are children of God. | Stacy | ||
| dEUS | The band name was chosen after a Sugarcubes song. | BJ Sturgeon | ||
| dEUS | Named after a song by Icelandic band The Sugarcubes. | Stjurgeon | ||
| Devo | They were originally the "de-evolution band” but then they switched to DE-eVOlution Devo. | CLH | ||
| Devo | Formed in 1972, Devo's original inspiration came from Oscar Kiss Maerth's "The Beginning Was the End": a pseudoscientific anthropological thesis which attributes the rise of man as an evolutionary accident caused by a species of sex-crazed, cannibalistic apes who developed tools to exploit each other sexually and feed on each others' brains. This metaphor is carried throughout Devo's work as an abstraction of modern society. | anonentity | ||
| Devo | De-evolution..yes..but also..They are the spokesband for a concept called "the church of the subgenius",who all salesman leader is BOB..mark motherbough..is the first son of BOB,Peewee herman..being the second..did ya ever notice..in rugrats..that when one of the kids is ask to "swear" to something..they always say..I swear to BOB"..mark is the music writer for the show..other members of the cast..are members of the subgenius..other famous people include Bud Cort,Bill Murrayand many others..Devo is more than a band..it was a tried movement. | carcarx42 | ||
| Devo | While the word "devolution" existed prior to Devo - the word "de-evolution" did not, and was coined by the band specifically to refer to the crackpot theory. Additionally, the band was not "inspired" by Oscar Kiss Maerth's book. The book is an insane rant that was used by the band as an absurd confirmation of the theory. | robert lewis | ||
| Devo | Sorry, Bobo. Devo did not invent the concept of devolution. In fact, the word has been in common usage (that is, traceable) to the 16th Century. But yes, the name does refer to the concept. | magyarman | ||
| Devo | Devo took its name from their concept of "de-evolution" the idea that instead of evolving, mankind has actually regressed, as evidenced by the dysfunction and herd mentality of American society | Bobo | ||
| Devola | NYC band named their band after the name of the drummer and singer's hometown...in ohio. | Mary Poppins | ||
| Dexter Freebish | The Houstonians named the band after a rollercoaster at Astroworld theme park across from the Astrodome. Astroworld closed down since. | Mark | ||
| Dexter Freebish | DF was named after a roller coaster the band members used to ride as kids. There is a photograph of the roller coaster on the cover of the band's first album, "Life of Saturdays". (Unfortunately, the coaster was closed down.) | Elfee | ||
| Dexys Midnight Runners | They named themselves after a pill that I believe was called Dexedrine (could be spelt like that) | Alana | ||
| Dexys Midnight Runners | heard this one a nation wide radio show ... Dexadrine ... also known in some circles as Midnight Runners ... speed ... hmmmm | Bo | ||
| Dexys Midnight Runners | Midnight Runner is a condom... | jim | ||
| Dexys Midnight Runners | Dexadrin is a drug that allows you to dance(or run) all night. | YASMR | ||
| Dexys Midnight Runners | They named themselves after the peddlers who gave to them Dexedrine (speed tablets) late at night. This was a recreational drug in the UK 'Northern Soul' music and dance scene which emerged in the late 60s. Dexys Midnight Runners were founded in 1978. | Eileen Is My Girlfriend | ||
| Diamond Head | Diamond Head (Lçʻahi) is the name of a dormant volcanic cone on the Hawaiian island Oʻahu, but the band got the idea from a Phil Manzanera album of the same name. From: https://www.metal-archives.com/bands/Diamond_Head/401 | PeartNeal | ||
| Diamond Rio | This groups name is a misspelling. See the entry for REO Speedwagon. The REO truck company merged with another small truck maker bringing out the Diamond REO. The group takes its name from the brand of truck, now defunct. | Jim Kuza | ||
| Dido | Dido is the name of the Carthaginian queen that Aeneas fell in love with, then left to found Rome. She killed herself when he left. Dido is not a "mythological creature". | Moontear | ||
| 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 | ||
| Dido | Dido is her first name. She is actually named after a mythological creature. | Jessie | ||
| Dido | Dido is not her first name, it is the pet name that her family call her. Her name is Florian Cloud de Bounevialle Armstrong. | Vicki | ||
| Dido | Dido was the queen of Carthage in Mediterranean mythology. Vergil wrote of her in his Aeneid - she is a woman originally from Phoenicia (now Israel) who adored her husband, the King of Tyre. However, her treacherous brother-in-law killed said husband, forcing Dido and a loyal band of Tyrians to flee to what would become Carthage, and is now Northern Africa. So Dido builds this magnificent city - Carthage - and rules it well, until Aeneas, a vanquished hero of Troy, appears. He's on his way to found Rome (or so decree the gods). She falls in love with him, but he sneaks off at night and abandons her - so here's Dido: she's been disloyal to her dead husband (a big deal in ancient world), and her lover has left her. She's been decieved by two men, and kills herself. 'Dido' is not a 'mythological creature', she's a mythological woman with an interestingly feminist backstory. (heck, I don't even like the singer, I just need to keep the record on the mythological reference correct).) | Shipwright | ||
| Dido | Dido wasn't a mythological creature, but a queen from mythology. Dido was the NICKNAME of this artist, not her real name. She was christened Florian Cloud De Bounevialle Armstrong. Dido was the queen of Carthage in the Aeneid, by Vergil, an ancient Roman writer/poet. According to the story, Dido, the queen of Carthage fellin love with Aeneas as he came to her city, and comitted suicide when he left her to go to Italy. | Yarra | ||
| Die Happy | it's a surfers slang and means such as "good luck" or in german we say "hals- und beinbruch!" | charles | ||
| Die Toten Hosen | It means "the dead trousers"(I know, ridiculous) in German, | Lefty Lucy | ||
| DIMM | I know for a fact, Rob B and Phil were wandering an old video store and found a couple of classics, the "Drunken Monkey" and "Iron Master". After several viewings of the two films they decided to put the two together to forge what we now know today as Drunken Iron Monkey Master... or DIMM. | Kin Irish | ||
| Dimmu Borgir | Comes from a volcanic rockformation in Icleand with the same name | Pat | ||
| Dimmu Borgir | The Norwegian term for "dark fortress" | buttman | ||
| Dimmu Borgir | A cave on Island thats leads to hell in the myths. | Baphomet | ||
| Dimmu Borgir | Dimmuborgir is actually a word from Island, meaning "the dark castles". | deviant | ||
| Dimmu Borgir | They named it after a geyser in Iceland, and it's pronounced 'Dimmoo Borgear'. | Kierkegaard | ||
| Dimmu Borgir | Pronounced "dim-moo bore-gear", the Dimmuborgir is a large area of unusually shaped lava fields east of Lake Mn, on Iceland. The Dimmuborgir area is composed of various caves and rock formations. It would seem that this has been formed from a lava-lake, out of which molten lava flowed and left behind strange formations. The most famous cave being Kirkjan - the Church - high with a large gothic style vault. Dimmu=foggy/dark, Borgir=castle/fortress. - From their website | [CARGO] | ||
| Dimmu Borgir | It is Icelandic for "Black Castle." | Melissa | ||
| Dimu Borgir | This band hails from Norway. Dimu Borgir roughly translates into dark/haunted castle. | Dustin | ||
| Dinosaur Jr | J Mascis named the band Dinosaur, but the threat of a lawsuit from a California band made of members from Jefferson Airplane, Moby Grape and other remnants of the psychedelic scene, called the Dinosaurs, made mascis add the jr designation | TK | ||
| Dinosaur, Jr. | This band was originally just Dinosaur before most of the major band members left the group. With a few new members and a threat of a lawsuit by the former members, they became Dinosaur, Jr. | newrock | ||
| Dio | Named after the band's singer, Ronnie James Dio, born Ronald James Padavona. He took the name "Dio" from Johnny Dio, a mafia member from Florida, NOT because the word happens to mean "God" is some languages. (source: www.dio.net) | Bill M. | ||
| Dio | Lead singer Ronnie James (whose real last name escapes me) Changed his name to Ronnie James Dio. Why? Dio is Italian for "God". Nope, no ego problems there. - Blaze Phoenix Ronnie James Dio's real last name is Pardovana | Evilar | ||
| Dio | Lead singer Ronnie James (whose real last name escapes me) Changed his name to Ronnie James Dio. Why? Dio is Italian for "God". Nope, no ego problems there. | Blaze Phoenix | ||
| Dion & The Belmonts | One of the best and most famous Doo-Wop groups, they lived on Belmont Avenue in the Bronx, New York. | Country Paul | ||
| Dippedil | One of the guys of the band, Said the bass player, his daughter couldn't pronounce the word crockodil (in dutch Krokodil) properly when she was young. She said Dippedil....this name kinda of stuck with the band. | Andre Claus | ||
| Dir en Grey | Dir is not the german word for coin ("Muenze" or "Geldstueck" is german for coin). Dir means "to you" (like I give it to you). So Dir en Grey would mean To you in Grey. Perhabs they mean Tier (Animal). But Animal in Grey???? ...no... A japanese girl told me: Because in japan they use different signs for writing, they need some so called phonetic notation for english names. And it's possible that the translation of Oscar Wildes Dorian Gray to japanese and the retranslation to english becomes Dir en Grey. Another fan of the group told me, they choose the name, just because it sounds good... ;) | DeGfan | ||
| Dir En Grey | I read an interview ((I might still have it)) where Dir en grey was asked this very question. Die, of course being the talkative loudmouth he is, answered that it has no meaning and that one of them randomly came up with it. It's jsut coincidence that it might mean something in another language like a few rumors I've heard. | Yashito | ||
| Dir en Grey | In an interview Kaoru had said that at first the had a mass of different names. But he wasn't sure if it was him or some one else in the Band who said Dir en Grey. And at first that they didn't like the name but he (kaoru) persuaded the others to accept the name. And yeah it is Coin in Grey. I am sorry but it's not Dorian Grey but the names sound very similar. | Pokeeto | ||
| Dir en Grey | From what I heard, the popular Japanese band Dir en Grey was named after the famous novel character Dorian Gray whose appearance stays young forever while his appearance on his portrait hidden in his attic grows old each day. This character recently also appeared in The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. Perhaps this makes more sense than "The Grey Coin". | Beyond | ||
| Dir En Grey | a mishmash of french, english and german. "Dir" is german for coin and "en" is french for "in". Literally, "coin in grey", but the name really means "grey coin". | explodingferret | ||
| Dir en Grey | Kaoru, the band's leader, wanted to combine the German, English and French words to create a band name meaning "Siver Grey-ish Coin", but instead Dir en Grey basically translates as "You In Grey". Sorry Kaoru! | Teensabre | ||
| Dire Straits | because of their financial situation at the time, most of the group had no money left to their names. | ray daley | ||
| Dire Straits | The brothers from Dire Straits went to the same bording school I did. They were always messing around, and one day they were pulled up by the master in charge, who gave them a big lecture and told them that if they didn't sort themselves out, they would be in dire straits when they were older. They adopted it some years later, when he was proved right, as they were utterly broke, but still chasing the dream! | Just Me | ||
| Dire Straits | The name for Mark Knopfler's band came when they switched from a country/jazz format to a full rock band in the late 70's. The old gig wasn't paying the bills, and the new band was named Dire Straits because it was a last effort to get out of financial hot water (and I guess it worked!) | Luke Maynard | ||
| Dire Straits | After starting life as "Cafe Runners", they decided to make the switch to "Dire Straits" to reflect their financial situation. | QarnoS | ||
| Dire Straits | The original name of Dire Straits was "Cafe Racers", not "Cafe Runners". Yet the rest of the story is correct. | Tim | ||
| Dishwalla | A dishwalla is someone in India who sells black market electronics! Their first name was Life Talking. | Lisa | ||
| Diskodiktator | According to the founding member JB, the name was found on a poster promoting a local rave somewhere in Germany and simply taken as is. | tarzan | ||
| The Distillers | Brody saw an old Distiller plant and pointed out the name and stuck with it | Rebelious92 | ||
| Distortion | Well one day Jay and his other band mates were jamin out and he looked over and saw the distortion on his amp and f***ed with it and thought this would be a good name for the crazy 4 in the band Is Mike Neidig and Chris Grainer Also Steve Brownson along with Bassist Jay Unger. Mike is drums and steve is rythm chris is lead and jay is bass both chris and jay sing! | Jay Unger | ||
| Disturbed | The name came from when the members were eating at an Indian restaurant. The bassist got up to go to the bathroom. The other members were worried because he was gone for at least an hour before he came back. Meanwhile, the members were trying to think of a name for their band. When the bassist returned he mentioned that the food "disturbed" his bowels. The rest of the band members claim that in thinking hard for what their name should be, the only word of his sentence they had heard was "disturbed." The band name stuck ever since. | hojo | ||
| Disturbed | David Draiman named the band "Disturbed" because thats how he thinks the world is with all the mayhem going on, Disturbed. | Excalibur | ||
| The Divine Comedy | Named after the long poem about Heaven, Hell and the afterlife by Dante Alighieri (1265-1321). The poem was written between 1308 and 1321. | Robert Morgan | ||
| The Dixie Chicks | These gals got their name from a box with the words Dixie Chicken printed on it. They merely shortened it from "chicken" to "Chicks". | DJ | ||
| Dixie Chicks | They named themselves after the Little Feat song "Dixie Chicken." But Emily Robison said she didn't 'want to be a chicken.' So they changed it to the Dixie Chicks. | Rhiannon | ||
| Dixie Chicks | In the late 80's, Little Feat's "Dixie Chicken" was all over the radio. So the Dixie Chicks were originally called the Dixie Chickens, but soon shortened it to Chicks. | Lindsay | ||
| Dixie Chicks | The Little Feat song is correct. But they got it from the Garth Brooks version. | Ruben | ||
| Dixie Chicks | They named themselves after the Little Feat song "Dixie Chicken." | crazydon | ||
| Dixie Chicks | Actually, there's a world-famous bar in College Station, Texas (home of Texas A&M) called "The Dixie Chicken" and they used to play there all the time before they were famous. (The Chicken holds the world record for most beer sold per square foot of bar space of any bar in the world!) | amber | ||
| Dixie CHicks | ok ur all wrong. if any one payed any attention in history class they would know that "dixie" is another name for the south...it dates all the way back 2 the civil war. and all 3 girls are from the south. and as anyone would know, "chicks" is another name for girls. like that dumb rob schneider movie. so u just have to put 2 and 2 together and u get dixie chicks. its really not that complicated | alana | ||
| Dixie Chicks | The Dixie Chicks got there name from the Little Feat song Dixie Chicken...they just changed it to Chicks | tazmanrox | ||
| Dixie Dregs | All of the members of the Dixie Dregs were at a "cattle call" audition put on by an Atlanta GA producer. At the end of it, they were the only ones left that hadn't been placed with a band. They were the dregs of the audition, so to speak. They looked at each other and decided to form a band on the spot. | Redaxxe | ||
| Dixie Dregs | Originally "Rock Combo #2 at the University of MIami, they left and called themselves the "Dixie Grits." Steve Morse, Rod Morgenstein, and Any West remained when that band broke up, the dregs of the Dixie Grits and became the Dixie Dregs. | Jeff | ||
| Dizze | It was late at night and they were sitting down thinking about a band name and one of the girls got up to fast and got dizzy so they did the name dizzy but they changed the spelling. | Lindsay | ||
| DJ Bobo | After "Bobo, the escape king". | mads |
Entries starting with D are split into multiple pages: 1 2 3
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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