N, 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).

Other Pages: A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Misc.

Latest Entries

Entries starting with N are split into multiple pages: 1 2

There are 4773 Band Name Origin entries on the site.

Name	Origin	Submitted by:
Nine Inch Nails	Wintermute is thinking of the song "Precious Things" off of Tori Amos' first record. But the band had already formed by that time. Trent took the name from a note with potential band names. He stated in an interview that "Nine Inch Nails" stood the 2-week test, that it looked great in print, and could be easily abbreviated. He stated that there was no meaning behind it. Just that it sounded, to use his own words, "tough and manly".	me
Nine Inch Nails	Trent wanted something that sounded both seductive and brutal, drawing you in, but pushing you away at the same time. The nails on the coffin and the crucifixion stories are false.	eidetic
Nine Inch Nails	I heard in an interview that Trent just picked some random words that sounded good together. Now he's upset that the band is famous with that name, claiming that band names are supposed to be meaningful, but there was never a meaning behind NIN.	Eddie Ellip
Nine Inch Nails	Two solutions - officially, the nails used to crucify Jesus were 9 inches long, but the band always refute this. The other solution would be that NIN would look god damn cool when it was written down. The name itself is obviously how long coffin nails are.	Bobo
Nine Muses	8 member Korean girl band that once had 9 members representing the 9 Muses of Greek Mythology: Calliope, Clio, Erato, Euterpe, Melpomene, Polyhymnia, Terpsichore, Thaleia, and Urania.	Robert D. Arndt Jr.
Nino	Nino in the dictionary means, "Hottest guy ever."	Tony
Nirvana	Kurt Cobain, lead singer dicided that the final name for his band would be NIRVANA which he said mean freedom from pain and suffering. Note: Cobain always spelled NIRVANA in capital letters.	1 2 3 4 5
Nirvana	As Kurt Cobain said (yes, this is a quote): "Nirvana means complete and total bliss. That is what punk rock means to me." Nirvana had many punk influences that were very evident in their music.	adsfklj;jj;kli900u4898909802
Nirvana	Actually, you are all wrong - for Kurt Cobain, punk-rock was heaven. With his music, punk-rock was the style he was looking for, and as Nirvana is a Buddhist term for Heaven, and a better name for a band, this is the name he (and the other members of the band) decided on.	girlfromthestars
Nirvana	Nirvana got their name from an earlier not-so-succesful, local band of the 80's, then after the original band named Nirvana broke up, Kurt Cobain and the other guys picked Nirvana as their new band name, now that it was available.	Just Me
Nirvana	Nirvana is Sanskrit, it is literally translated as "Blowing Out", as in blowing out the flames of desire...or blowing out your brains with a gun...	Dr Eagle Sperm-Cannon, LSD
Nirvana	I can't believe no one really knows this. Nirvana is a Buddhist concept of a state of feeling no emotions, INCLUDING joy, pain, etc. So no, it is not a state of bliss. It is a state of total content, and monotony, and indifference. Think of Kurt's personality, and how the band didn't care what anyone thought.	Alex
Nirvana	i carnt remember the exact lines of it but, it simply said he had watched a buddist documentry and then descided for a short period of time he was a buddist. Nirvana is the higher plain in buddists religion. And so it all links in, an he probably just said hey that a kool name and went with it.	ian 'i simple read his bio' simmonds
Nirvana	The Wipers, a band kurt cobain looked up to released a song called nirvana, in my opinion this led to influence his and krist's descision for NIRVANA as the band name.	Zachary McCaw
Nirvana	Kurt eventually came up with this name after going through several other options: Pen Cap Chew, Poo Poo Box, The Incompetent Fools, Pukearrhea, and such.	Emily
Nirvana	Nirvana is a state of nothingness, complete contentment, not needing or wanting anything, no emotions. It's a Buddhist concept, and Kurt may have felt this way, or wanted to.	Aaron
Nirvana	they were originally called skid row but after the other skid row became more popular Kurt decided on Nirvana (the buhdist state of enlightment) because he liked its eeriness and mysteriousness (coincidentally this name was also already taking by an older band, who released some albums but never became hugely popular).	David D
Nirvana	Nirvana was 'a state of perfect freedom' which was how Kurt said he'd describe punk music, which is what he was going for, but has frequently been misinterprented as 'grunge'	Splinter
Nirvana	Well Nirvana is the Buddhist state of enlightenment... think of Kurt and you'll figure the rest out.	Faith
Nirvana	Nirvan is a buddhism word that means the beautitude that transcends te cycle of reincarnation.	music freak
Nirvana	Kurt Cobain picked this name because he liked the idea of 'total peace after death'. 'Nirvana' is a term from Hinduism and Buddhism that means liberation from the cycle of birth and death.	Shefali
Nirvana	Nirvana is what the Buddhist call Heaven.	Rhiannon
Nirvana	After going through a lot of names Kurt finally decided on "NIRVANA" because A. At the time he considered himself a Buddhist and B. It sort of means and escape, a perfect place. Like a world without parents and jocks and mean record corporations.	Kelly
Nirvana	It was "borrowed" from an earlyer band that didn't get the chance of getting famous and split. Thats the real origin.	Phil
Nirvana	Nirvana is the purportedly enlightened Buddhist state characterized by some sort of void. Cobain's suicide reflected the void he somehow felt in his life, even though he courted the beauteous Courtney Love and topped the charts. His confusion was reflected in his song "Come As You Are", as he sung "no i don't have a gun", while in reality he collected guns and did himself in with one.	Major Bliss
Nirvana	it was actually picked cause they just saw it on a poster and kurt liked the word. he didn't even know what it meant until someone told him later. they wanted to change their name but they ended up having to pay $50,000. dollars to another band that had the same name in europe for a name they didn't even like. - other people that wrote things for the name of nirvana please don't be an idiot, research before you write things.	bobby rock.
Nirvana	Kurdt Kobain was watching a late night show on Buddiasim,and he loved the idea of Nirvana,the plains you reach to achieve it.He didnt like all the horrible evil satanist type names of bands around him,so he choose something nice and pretty.It tells you this in Come as you are...every true Nirvana fan should know this!	Kurtney
Nirvava	this is right from the book 1 : the final beatitude that transcends suffering, karma, and samsara and is sought especially in Buddhism through the extinction of desire and individual consciousness 2 a : a place or state of oblivion to care, pain, or external reality; also : BLISS, HEAVEN b : a goal hoped for but apparently unattainable : DREAM	Whiynna
Nizlopi	Nizlopi was the last name of the girl that the lead singer liked when he was at school.	Jenson
No Apparent Reason	Punk band NOFX with drummer Erik Sandin played in this bands garage back in 1984. Drummer Brian White was and is really good friends with Erik. Bass player Richard White of "No Apparent Reason" needed a name. Erik Sandin suggested to to use a cool name. Being influenced by Erik and NOFX Richard got the phrase 'No Apparent Reason" from watching the news. Richard tells it; "In an hour of news I heard the phrase, "for no apparent reason' over five times. The name stuck, and this legendary punk rock band fell into cult status after being censored and banned by the Sound Vault recording studio in 1984	Rick Lowenau
No Band	One day the band was rehearsing very loudly in their house when the landlord came over to check on things. They were playing so loud they could hear him knocking on the door. When he came through the door they all stopped playing. The landlord then said, "No band, no band," while hand miming someone cutting their throat. As soon as the landlord left, the singer made up a song about the whole ordeal called, "No Band" The chords used in the song or the three loudest power chords there are, f, f#, and g.	D-stew
No Doubt	John Spence (original lead singer of No Doubt, along w/ Gwen and Eric Stefani) always used to say "no doubt" so they used that for their band name. John Spence killed himself in 1987, the same year No Doubt formed.	Bryan
No Doubt	The group took its name from member John Spencer's favorite phrase.	Melissa
No Doubt	"No Doubt" was Eric Stefani's (keyboardist on the early albums and founder of the band,not to mention Gwen's brother ) favorite saying, popular in southern California in the late 80s early 90s	maffa
No Doubt	'No doubt' was the catchphrase of John Spence (the founder of No Doubt), who committed suicide in the year that ND was formed.	Me
No Fun At All	This is from the official site: Named after a tongue-in-check mixture of the Sex Pistols song "No Fun" and Sick of it all's name.	Androdaking
No No Bun Bun	The bassist had a day job in children's book publishing and one day he was editing a book for 3 year-olds and on one page a boy was scolding his stuffed toy rabbit (a la Calvin & Hobbes) , saying, 'No no, Bun Bun!"	dkb
No Secrets	The name "No Secrets" was a joke name. They took "No Doubt" and "Victoria`s Secret", and made "No Secrets"!	J.T.
No Words	they started doing just instrumental music- with no words, so they decided on No Words!	X
Nobody's Angels	Inspired by the U.S, TV series and later film Charlie's Angels	Robert D. Arndt Jr.
Nodvarn	This Swedish metal band known for a performance in which the lead singer vomited on stage that appeared on TruTV's World's Dumbest got its name from the Swedish word for "self-defense"	JeReMy
NOFX	Consensus among the punkers is that no one really knows. They ripped it from Negative FX (Fat Mike hates the name now, but he thought is was cool when he was 17!)	Nikhil
NOFX	After the band Negative FX, who only put out one record, and NOFX thought that was a stupid thing to do, so they were kind of saying, "we aren't going to do that"	boddah
NOFX	They just took the name Negative FX, and decided that they would have NOFX (No Effects).	Bobo
NOFX	The band got this name from a band named Negative FX. NOFX wanted to be a band that would be around for a while (Which they have been) and they thought Negitive FX was dumb, because they only put out one album. NOFX uses Effects, such as flange and Ping Pong reverb on songs. It does NOT mean No Effects. Or No Function!	Adrian
NOFX	The name stands for N.O.Fucking.Xtra	Mr T
NOFX	I like to believe they are closet math nerds and the name means No Function. Think back to algebra class f(x) was used to symbolize function (im not turning this into an algebraic dissertation), so NOFX means No Function.	Rich
NOFX	they thought that if they do a lot of stupid things that it wouldnt affect them so they first came up with no effects (now its nofx)	chris
NoFX	From the official website - The Name "Mike and I use to hang out at his house and listen to all of his punk rock records. We tried to come up with good band names. I said No FX after a band who had put out one record and broken up called Negative FX. Mike agreed that it was the best one so far. There seemed to be a lot of gimmicky bands around at the time. We like to think that our name meant we were against that shit. In 1983 three of the four members were into the straight edge movement following Minor Threat's first single, but we were never a straight edge band, OK?"	Stacey
NOFX	According to Fat Mike and the rest of the gang, the name is just a corruption of another band's name, which they stole. Negative FX was the original band, and the punkers decided to rip it. Mike has said that although everyone thinks that NOFX means no staight edge or no effects, but that's not true.	Yasser
NOFX	NOFX stands for "no effects" because the band didnt use any effects in their songs	a geek
NOFX	QUOTED FROM FAT MIKE IN AN INTERVIEW ON THE NOFX SITE: all the rest of the band liked other music as well as punk rock, but fat mike just liked punk rock so he was unaffected by his bandmates taste in music so there was no effects on him-so NOFX	Ryan
NoFx	"We actully swiped the name from a previous band named Negative X." Lead singer John of NoFX.	Fat Mike
Nofx	They kind of ripped the name off of a past local band called Negative FX.	Andrew
NOFX	Punk music is generally against using effects(FX) coz its so HARDCORE so NOFX like no-effects, ya know	mark
NOFX	All of the guys in the band greatly enjoy drugs and such and they got the name NOFX which means "No F**king Straight Edge". Strait Edge is a punk movment that is opposed to drugs and alcohol, and ciggerettes and even caffine, and the symbol for straight edge is an X hence the name, NOFX	Eric
NoHope	One night the band's guitarist was on the phone with the bass guitarist, trying to think of a name. The bass guitarist said: there is "no hope" in this, as they couldnt think of a name. Then the guitarist said: shit man! thats it! So NoHope it was!	Matt
Nois Next Door	They used to practice all round there house and they thought that to the neighbours they must sound like 'the noise next door' and the name stuck.	Tonks
Noiz Boiz	The band's mobile entertainment facility (van) had just left at a hilltop cafe between Bridgwater and Weston-super-Mare early 1982 and were engaed in earnest conversation (ie: a blazing row). Girl in the front seat turns around and shouts "Don't make so much noise boys" - cue wild celebration and inaugaration of new band name.	Chaz
Noiz Boiz	Believe band nameing took place at the back end of 1980 as the the band released their debut single in May 1981. Also, lead singer, Chapman, was a big Slade fan (hence the use of the Z's).	CT
Nomeansno	Its simply the anti rape slogan "no means no" that had begun to see common usage in the late '70s. Founding member Rob Wright saw it scrawled on garage door and thought it fit the lyrics he and brother John were writing at the time.	tim gueguen
Nona Hendryx	She doesn't want to be connected with her cousin Jimi Hendrix, so she replaced the i in the surname with a y.	mads.
None More Black	It's a line from the movie "This is Spinal Tap".	Fat man on campus
Nora	they choose the band name after the lead singers girl friend died in the 9-11 attacks	B unit
Norma Jean	Originally, the band was called Ludacris. However, the rapper got big before they did, so they changed their name to Norma Jean, which is Ludacris' mom's name.	Jack Kelly
Norma Jean	"Norma" means pattern, and "Jean" means mercy, so all together the name means "a pattern of grace and mercy."	stef uh knee
Norma Jean	Jack Kelly was right, except for the fact that it was spelled "Luti-Kriss." They may have CHANGED it for that reason, but they picked "Norma Jean" because it translates into "Patterns of Mercy and Grace," which matches the fact that they are a Christian band.	Anonymous
Norma Jean	Norma Jean is the real name of Marilyn Monroe.	Luke Monte
North	One of the band members was on the phone with a bar manager arranging an upcoming gig, and the manager asked what name to put on the marquis. The member looked up to the others and suggested South, as they were living south of Rochester, NY, when someone suggested North would be better.	Larry Gardner
Northern Pikes	A fish taken from the lakes and rivers of northern Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba, where the band members used to fish with their fathers. They figured, why not name a band after a fish?	Snowotter
Noshiwano	Damon, the bass player, was watching the video "Live Tonight Sold Out" by Nirvana, when Dave Ghrol said "My Sharona." Damon didn't know what Dave had actually said, and thought it was "Noshiwano" so they called the band that. It is a totally made up word.	Dana
Notalent	One day the band was sitting around when they first started, and they wanted to pick a name. The original guitarist Danny Shannon blurted out NoTalent saying it was "funny....and honest". They decided to keep it until they found a better one but it just stuck.	Jeff
Notorious B.I.G	His original name was "Biggie Smalls." However, his name had to be changed because of another unknown rapper, who never succeded in the industry,had that name first. Therefore, Puffy had it changed to Notorious BIG.	Funk Doctor
Notorious B.I.G.	The name "Biggie Smalls" was taken from a fictional drug dealer from a classic Bill Cosby movie. Later shortened to BIG, then Notorious B.I.G.	Onijin
NRBQ	Now in business and recording for over 35 years, they were originally the New Rhythm & Blues Quintet. Two original members left, replaced by one new one, and Q has since stood for Quartet - or as fans just call them, the Q.	Country Paul
NRG	New Radiancy Group	Robert D. Arndt Jr.
Nsync	Nsync is last letter of each guys' name, but the second N is for JasoN, an original member of the group who Lance replaced. His name is not and never has been "Lansten".	Jodie
NU'EST	New Established Style and Tempo	Robert D. Arndt Jr.
The Number 12 Looks Like You	Named after a Twilight Zone episode that takes place in the near future where young women are forced to choose between two different total makeover styles.	The Skuz
Nunreal	They were talking about Nuns at the same time as thinking of a band name, when Pat said "how about Unreal?" to which Adam replied "NUNREAL!". It stuck.	Bob the builder
NYC	They were all from my city, New York City, and thourght that the name NYC sounded cool. Only it was origionaly N.Y.C. Even if you look on their first album, Resorection Blvd., you see that it says N.Y.C. However, when their first rythem guitarist, Tommy Johnson, died after Resorection Blvd., they changed it to NYC because a part of the band was gone.	Tony Conderno

Entries starting with N are split into multiple pages: 1 2

Other Pages: A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Misc. (Search)

New entries in this section are currently reviewed by Brian Kelly. Previous editors (if any) are listed on the editors page.

Submissions

Got something that should be added to this page? Check out the submission form.