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).
Entries starting with D are split into multiple pages: 1 2 3
There are 4775 Band Name Origin entries on the site.
Name | Origin | Submitted by: | ||
DJ Food | 4-piece group, took their name from the concept of several-volumed series of stripped-down breaks records designed for deck use (i.e. "food" for DJs), | Bobo | ||
DJ Fuse | DJ Fuse is the artist of H.A.B.B.O, promoting Habbo Hotel. DJ Fuse got it's name from Sulake (the creator of Habbo)'s FUSE technology, used in Habbo. | Jaz/Jarad | ||
DJ Otzi | After Ötzi The Iceman | Mads | ||
DJ Ötzi | After Ötzi The Iceman | Mads | ||
DMX | He named himself after the beatmaking/drum machine he used when he was younger!!! | Gangstar | ||
DMX | Before determining to have his stage name stand for "Dark Man X," DMX was originally an acronym for "Divine Master of the Unknown." (He mentions this in his first single "Born Loser," released in 1993.) | Skarsgaard | ||
DMX | It stands for Dark Man X | SaRiZ | ||
DMX | Dark Man X is correct, but not the whole story...it's also a reference to a model of beat machine (where old-school rapper Davy DMX also got his name) | John Marks | ||
Doc Walker | During the early days of the bands formation, the lead singer, Chris Thorsteinson, had a habit of forgetting to bring his medication to gigs. He would often ask his best friend, J.J. Walker to run to his house and get his medication for him. One day at a gig he said, "hey, there's Doc Walker with my pills, thanks". Someone in the room suggested that Doc Walker would be a cool name for the new band, so it stuck. | CJ McGinty | ||
Doc Weasel | Originally the band was called "Screamin' Weasel" after the famous fighter aircraft in the first gulf war, but the band was far from punk or metal and wasn't really all that "Screamin'". To avoid confusion the band decided to kick names around and suggestions like Mr. Weasel, Sgt. Weasel and the lead singer's favorite Senor Weasel were all voted down until his girlfriend Amanda came up with Dr. Weasel which they later shortened to Doc Weasel | Joe Dietz | ||
Does It Offend You, Yeah? | The band needed a name for to put on their MySpace account and decided they would name the band after the next thing they heard on television, which was the line "Does it offend you, yeah? my drinking?" uttered by Ricky Gervais in an episode of the original UK version of "The Office" | Ryan | ||
Dog's Eye View | When he formed the band, the lead singer was living in a basement apartment. All he could see out of the window was a fire hydrant. | Brian Kelly | ||
Dog's Eye View | Dogs see the world in black and white. | rodrin | ||
Dokken | Named after its leader Don Dokken. | rocker | ||
The Dolls | They thought they looked really ugly, so they decided to name their band the opposite. | tumeg0 | ||
Done4theday | I heard that they were too tired to practice and some one said, "We are done for the day". All loved it. | Zukko | ||
Done4theday | The guys had the name "Fast Elvis". One joked about how everyone would want to be them. Royce (a member) said, "No, everyone wants to be done for the day" Blam! It stuck. | Mark | ||
Doobie Brothers | The band never picked the name. An agreement was made between Mike Hossack and the originator of the name aboard the aircraft carrier USS INDEPENDENCE in the late 1960's for the use of said name. The agreement was never honored, and it's originator was never compensated. The copyright was falsified as thier own. | J.J. Torok | ||
Doobie Brothers | 1968 or thereabouts aboard the aircraftcarrier Uss Independence CVA62 one of the bays. Montego or Guantanamo. The herb was readily available in either.I When in port it meant fresh eggs for breakfast. Having the day watch in the midship radioroom, which was on the way to chow, I stopped in to get a hold of what was going on. As I opened the hatchdoor and entered I was engulfed in a cloud of smoke which carried a very distinct odor. I exclaimed " I see the Doobie Brothers are at it again, you guys get caught, it will be your a**. I turned and walked out. Heading down the passageway I heard my name called. I turned to see my shipmate Mike Hossack. He was asking if he could use that? I said use what? He replied that name man, that name! I said what name? He said " the Doobie Brothers man, the Doobie Brothers! I say Go ahead, but you make anymoney with it , I get my share. He says, and I quote. You got it man, no problem, you got it. Yea I sure did if you catch my drift. The story they tell is nothing but BS. They should be ashamed, not put in the hall of fame! | J.J. Torok | ||
Doobie Brothers | A "doobie" was slang for a marijuana cigarette. | human | ||
Doobie Brothers | Hey Bob, If you don't believe that Torok gave Hossack the name all you have to do is ask Mike Hossack. But if they claimed the name illegally on record to the US Patent and Trademark Office, do you think the group would be considered plagiarists? Check out their biography on A&E Channel. Mike tells you himself where the name came from. | J.J. Torok | ||
The Doobie Brothers | The band known as the Doobie Brothers did not pick out the name. The name was originated aboard the Uss Independence in the late 1960's while in Montego or Guantanamo Bay. A certain situation in the midship radioroom caused J.J. Torok to author the name. A shipmate at the time , one of the participants, entered into an agreement with the author for its use. The terms were if any monies should be made with the name, the author would be paid his rightful share. The name was trademarked without his permission and by doing so he was cheated out of his intellectual property rights. Do you think that would be deserving of induction into the R&R Hall of Fame? Do be or not Doobie brother? | J.J. Torok | ||
The Doobie Brothers | I can hear Mike Hossack jokingly, making a comment about 'being a Doobie Brother' while in the Navy. However, the timing for the formation of the 'original members of the Doobies' (of which Mike wasn't) doesn't jive. I've known many "Doobie Brothers" that had nothing to do with a band. The basement story, of friends burning a joint together and popping out with the comment: "Why don't we call the band The Doobie Brothers?" has never been contested or accredited to anyone else. Therefore, they own the name. I'm pretty sure Bruce Cohn (Doobie's longtime business manager) did his research, after being told by the guys that they decided on The Doobie Brothers. He didn't care for the name, but it was better than PUD after all. | Holly Perry | ||
Doobie Brothers | Sitting around the morning breakfast table(doobie table), at their band house when they were playing pubs under the name of "Pug". One of the members said "hey we're all doobie brothers!" Read this in "hit parader" or "song hits" back in the day when they were decent magazines. | Michael Reeves | ||
The Doobie Brothers | J.J. Torok claims he invented the name in the Navy and the Doobs drummer, Mike Hossack, later used it. I must take exception here to this spurious claim. Hossack did not join the band until 1972, by which time they had 3 albums already released under the Doobie brothers name. | Bob Young | ||
Doobie Brothers | Originally called Pud, when they got a recording contract, the record company insisted they change their name. Sitting around getting high one night, someone jokingly proposed "The Doobie Brothers." The name stuck. | Zosolias | ||
Doobie Brothers | I knew Skip Spence, Moby Grape, he formed the band in San Jose, Ca. They used to hang out at a biker house where they were constantly asked, "Got a Doobie brother?" (The slang for a joint part is right) This is verifiable by looking at the cover of their very first LP on Warner Brothers, pre Toulouse Street, with the picture of them sitting on the porch of that house as well as the notes on the back explaining they are a San Jose band not a San Francisco band and the liner notes thanking Alexander Spence for getting them together. | Rex Lyrics Jr. | ||
Doomsted | Doomsted was originated by the bassist, "CC" one day they were talking about naming the band, they tried to think of the most un original steriotypical band name ever, so doomsted formed. | Tom pyle | ||
Door Number 2 | One day the 3 guys in the band were going to get high and the drummer pulled a joint and said "whats behind door number 2?" and the name stuck. | Eric | ||
The Doors | The Doors - Jim Morrison took the name from a book called The Doors of Perception by Aldous Huxley, which took its name from a quote by William Blake (If the doors of perception were cleansed everything would appear to man as it is: Infinite.). | Monkey Trousers | ||
The Doors | Jim Morrison was very much into philosophy. He origionally wanted to name the band "The Doors Into Perception," but the record company made them change it. | Jackie | ||
The Doors | The name came from 'The Doors of Perception' from a (Blake?) poem | Guido | ||
The Doors | they though of it as each member of the band being a doorway into one's mind and to their thought, so, they are the doors | unkwon | ||
The Doors | William Blakes introductory poem in Aldous Huxley's book the Doors of Perception | Patrick | ||
The Doors | Comes from an Aldous Huxley book titled 'The Doors of Perception', which is about the affects of the drug mescaline. | Cat | ||
The Doors | From a quote by poet William Blake, "'If the doors of perception were to be cleansed every thing would appear to man as it is, infinite." | Equus | ||
The Doors | From the book (or saying) "The Doors of Perception" by Aldous Huxley. | thomsonrj | ||
The Doors | Jim Morrison would quote William Blake, "There are things known, and there are things unknown, and in between there are the doors." The band chose 'The Doors' as a name because of the quote. | Rain | ||
The Doors | From "The Marriage of Heaven and Hell" -- a poem by William Blake: If the doors of perception were cleansed / Everything would appear to man as it is: Infinite. For man has closed himself up / Till he sees all things through narrow chinks of his cavern. | Pablo the Great | ||
Dovells | This Philly-pop group, who did the "Bristol Stomp", the "New Continental", and "You Can't Sit Down", was actually named for the Deauville Hotel in Miami Beach, where their producer stayed in the winter. | jonaco | ||
Down/phil anselmo | it was the depressing down feeling Phil anselmo came up with the name | richard b long | ||
Dr DRE | Dr. DRE's name is AnDRE Young. | Edrich Cyster | ||
Dr Dre | He took his name as his own version of a footballplayer he liked; "Dr Jay". His name is Andre (Dre) Young. | Tim Camrbrant | ||
Dr Dre | His name is andre, dre was his nickname in high school. Also his favourite star was Dr J | cindii | ||
Dr. Alban | He's a dentist, which is the same as a tooth doctor. | mads. | ||
Dr. Dre | Actually, when he was with future NWA-ers Yella and Lonzo as the World Class Wreckin Cru, he developed turntable skills that reminded the others of a surgeon - the first track they released was called "Surgery" and featured the line "Dr. Dre to Surgery, Dr. Dre to Surgery". That is supposedly the first mention of the name Dr. Dre (as opposed to Andre Young) | aclerok | ||
Dr. Dre | Taken from his favorite athlete (Dr. J) and his real name (Andre or Dre for short). Also, he is a "DOCTOR" of beats. | jables | ||
Dr. DRE | In the medical profession, DRE is an acronym for "digital rectal exam". | Jim Verkade | ||
Dr. Dre | yes, "dre" does come from andre, BUT the Dr. in it does not come from the great basketball player julius erving!!! Back in the day, Before Dr. Dre made it big, he was a dj in a harmonizing group, They had flashy outfits, and they were really choriographed. Dr. Dre was just "Dj Dre" but One day the group dressed him in a docters outfit, and the girls loved the mystery that came with him being behind the mask. the girls went crazy, and dre played it out, thats how the "DR" came about, NOT from the great docter Julius Irving | LLacLuva13 | ||
Dr. Dre | had almost nothing to do with the athlete , in his early years of being a dj he would wear a surgical mask like the one micheal jackson wears [vh1 behind the music} | vincect | ||
Dr. Dre | He was a fan of a BASKETBALL PLAYER (not football) nicknamed Dr. J His name is Andre (Dre) Young so he took Dre and mixed it with his favorite athlete. | km | ||
Dr. Feelgood | The R&B band named after a song called "Dr Feelgood" recorded by many but also their idols Johnny Kidd and the Pirates. It was wrote by a blues singer called Piano Red who also went under the alias of Dr Feelgood. | Johnny Green | ||
Dr. Hook & The Medicine Show | Back in 1969 when they were just a bar band, the guys (Ray, Bill, Jay, George, and Dennis) they were doing gigs without a name. Just doing what they had to do. One night the bar owner told them they couldn't go on and he couldn't book them without a name. SO, on the spot, George (co-founder of the band) came up with the name Dr. Hook & The Medicine Show because of Ray's likeness to Captain Hook (as he'd just watched Peter Pan a few nights earlier) and added The Medicine Show because of the obvious drug reference. | Ryan (Dr. Hook Fan Club Owner) Sperry | ||
Drago | Sounds menacing. Actually, it's a term of endearment in Hungarian. Draga gerikek can be translated to mean dear children. | Buzz Anelli | ||
Drain STH | The STH stands for Stockholm. | David | ||
Drake | Do Right And Kill Everything....DRAKE | Jack Mehoff | ||
Drake | His birth name is Aubrey Drake Graham so he claims that he just took his middle name and made it his stage name | dayna | ||
Drater | the name drater in the awesome band Drater Badgers was thought up when the bass guitarist was high and was thinkin of words backwards and thought of retard backwards, and came up with drater badger | jtay and badger | ||
Dream Theater | Changed their name after having legal issues about the previous name, Majesty, which was taken from a Rush song, the band still uses the Majesty logo. | Kontraband | ||
Dream Theater | They once called themselves "Majesty" but changed the name to Dream Theater on a suggestion from John Petrucci's father, after an old movie theater near their home. | Deny | ||
Dream Theater | They got their name from a movie theater in California. | Markus | ||
The Dreaming | After Stabbing Westward broke up and Chris Hall was forming a new band, he decided to use the name of the domain in an old comic from the 90s, 'Sandman'. Sandman lived in The Dreaming, a domain where he had complete control. Chris liked it and kept it. | Sikotik | ||
Driveway Fire | The band was taking a break from playing in their garage and got bored. Glass set his had on fire and spilled some gas on the driveway. A gas can being poured on a small fire resulted in a bigger fire when the can caught on fire. This resulted in a fire on the driveway that lasted for over an hour. After many atempts the fire was finaly put out with a cooler. | Defiant Giant | ||
Dropkick Murphys | The band picked its name from the name of an old run down building where they would take the wino's from the street to "sober up for a bit", this drying out station was called "Dropkick Murphys" | Bomberman | ||
Dropkick Murphys | Even if the sobering up station was indeed called that, it was named after a somewhat obscure professional wrestler. | Travis Esquibel | ||
Drowning Pool | From an interview I did with the band at Ozzfest Stevie: The name came from my parents were out of town for spring break and I decided to stay behind so I could like party and have my friends over. One of those nights I just brought my girlfriend over, watching TV and I finally got laid! I’d been working on it for months and that movie happened to be on [Clint Eastwood’s The Drowning Pool] and years later I was thinking of a band name and I was like you know; thinking about playing in a band, thinking about getting laid and the two just kind of fell together. | Keavin | ||
Drowning Pool | The band was named after the 1977 movie "The Drowning Pool" with Paul Newman, not Clint Eastwood. | j.c. | ||
Dru Hill | A park in their home town is call Druid Hill. That's where they took the name. Also, with left eye, she is called that before her left eye is a glass eye. In Lil Kim's song, Ladies Night, she even mentions this. She states it very clearly in the song. | farrah | ||
Dru Hill | Named after Druid Hill Park in Baltimore | Courtney | ||
The Drugs | None of them use drugs and they just wanted a name that stood out and made hipocrits of the people that wouldn't let theri children watch them but still drank coffee and used comercial drugs. Parents that smoked were a big target. Also they knew (Unlike drugs) tha they were completely forgetable and not addictive at all. Also your information about Limp Bizkit is completely wrong. Limp Biscuit is a frat boys game. where they get a cracker each and masterbate over it until they all cum. The last to shoot has to eat the other limp (Now soggy from ball puss) crackers/Biscuits. In Australia the same game is called Soggy Sao as Sao is the most popular Cracker brand. | Greg Shovel | ||
Drugstore | They're named after the movie Drugstore Cowboy. | Jen | ||
Drukwerk | Drukwerk is a Dutch band. Drukwerk litteraly means printwork. It can also be translated as s***work. Some say one of the members thought of it during his visit to the toilet. | Flo | ||
Dschinghis Khan | Founded to compete in the 1979 Eurovision Song Contest, Dschinghis (pronounced "Jingis", Dschinghis Khan is the German spelling of Genghis Khan) Khan's first song (the one they performed at the ESC) was "Dschinghis Khan". Add the fact that its members dressed up in exotic outfits, with Louis Hendrik Potgieter (the lead singer) dressed up as Genghis Khan, and it's pretty easy to see where they got their name from. | Mr. X | ||
Dukes of Stratosphear | When Helium Kidz (formerly Star Park) were going to change their name, Andy Partridge had two names in mind: XTC and the Dukes of Stratosphear. They of course went with XTC, but they saved Dukes of Stratosphear for their psychedelic side project. | plasket | ||
Dum Dum Girls | There's a Norweigian band called DumDum Boys, which took the name from an Iggy Pop song "Dum Dum Boys". Also, there are the famous Dum Dum sucker lollipops. | Satellite Of Love | ||
Dum Dums | Named after the 70's lolly, obviously! | Claire | ||
Duran Duran | They got their name from the movie Barbarella. The villian's name in the movie was Duran Duran and they liked the trippy music associated with the movie. So they named themselves Duran Duran as a tribute to Barbarella. Jane Fonda was hot too. | Bam Bam | ||
Duran Duran | Yes, the name comes from Barbarella, but it's a closer link than that. In Birmingham, England, where the band come from one of the early clubs where everyone went was called Barbarella's and Duran Duran's members three founding members played gigs there in 1978. They took their name from the film's villain. | Jan | ||
Duran Duran | Originally calling themselves RAF (Royal Air Force) didn't seem catchy enough, so founding members Nick Rhodes and John Taylor went to '60's cheese flick "Barbarella" and found inspiration in the film's evil villain, "Dr. Durand Durand." | crookedsixpence | ||
The Durutti Column | From a French anarchist group's references to Spanish Civil War militians the Durruti Column. Spelling error/change was in the French anarchists' literature. | dc fan | ||
Dynamite Hack | A line in the movie Caddyshack describing marijuana | Robert D. Arndt Jr. | ||
Dyskrepancy | Actually, everything in Ar3a's post is correct except on thing. The E was backwards to represent the number 3 for Area 3, the room which we practiced at. | Stickman (Micke Luna) | ||
Dyskrepancy | Three of the band members (Kevin Jackson, Chris Woolsey and Micke Luna) worked at a distribution company in Akron, Ohio. Anything that was incorrectly done was known as a discrepancy and was numbered on the board next to the corresponding person's name. Singer Jackson and rhythm guitarist Woolsey discussed the name. Drummer Luna (Stickman) didn't join the band until later (he also started with a Korg M1 keyboard and not a real drumset). They spell it wrong, because it is a discrepancy in its own. The backwards E in their logo is also made for this same reason. | ar3a |
Entries starting with D are split into multiple pages: 1 2 3
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