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Names -> Band Name Origins -> P, 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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Entries starting with P are split into multiple pages: 1 2 3

There are 4772 Band Name Origin entries on the site.

Name
 
Origin
 
Submitted by:
Phats and Small After the band's DJs Jason Phats and Russell Small. Mads
Phish I thought everyone knew this. .. Phish is a delicious vegetarian fish substitute made by Morning Star. Available in fillet, crumble and flake style. The band lived on this stuff early on. Dick Clark
Phish They were originally called "Switchback Trail," way on up here in Vermont, but they wanted a shorter name, single-syllable-like, and so kicked around "Switch," but it made Mike think of his father's punishment and Page think of his former days as an electrician, so they softened it up to "Swish," but that just sounded gay, so they tried "Phitch," but that looked too much like "Bitch." All of these variations were on the same peice of paper, so they just edited and combined them into "Phitch Bitch on the Trail Swish," but then remembered the bit about the making-it-a-shorter-name and so removed everything except "Phi...ish," and that seemed too greek so they dropped the middle out again and called themselves Ph, but that was a little too acidic so they put the "his" back in it and became that loveable cuddly thing that crawls into your bed when you aren't there to stop it--"Phish" Jeremiah Heiss
Phish No, the guy who said about the last name was the correct one. I'm not positive about the PHd thing, but..its definatly from fishman. check www.phish.com in the letters to the band section. the phil lesh thing isn't write..and i have no idea where the thing about fooling around with "phitch" is about. not correct cat-on
Phish Actually, all of them are wrong. Fish is taken from the name Jon Fishman. They changed it to PH because they all have PHd's in music. Eliza
Phish My friend met Page personally earlier this year (2009), and asked this exact question. He said that has nothing to do with Fishman, but it is meant to be the sound a plane makes when it takes off. ppphhhhiiiiIIIISSSSHHHHH. Kevin
Phish This other guy is incorrect. According to Go Phish, Jon Fishman thought of the name "Phsssssh", the sound of an airplane taking off. Trey, the guitarist, made a logo, but they decided it was stupid. It just so happened that an "I" fit right in the middle of the logo, and they've been Phish ever since. Joe
Phish They decided to pick the name Phish because at every practice or recording session they would eat massive amounts of gold fish (crackers I assume you mean - ed). The PH is because they all have PHDs in music. Mark
Phish Many people think they just took drummer's Jon Fishman's last name and made it cool with the "ph" however PHISH is the first three letters of PHIL and the last two letters in LESH, so Phil Lesh the bass player for the Grateful Dead Andy Hughes
Phoenix Down After ten years of silence, former Alice Cooper guitarist Kane Roberts released Under A Wild Sky, which was heavily influenced by the game Final Fantasy VII (don't tell Square), which is one of Kane's favorite games. In the game, a Phoenix Down restores the life of an ally defeated in battle. Kane says he didn't release the record under his own name, as he had with previous solo projects, because it was so different from anything else he had recorded, and not the "Kane Roberts" sound. So he changed the band name to Phoenix Down. Chris DeNicola
Phudge Pump  According to the liner notes for the album "Phudge Pump Pushes The Butterfat Envelope," they all once worked in a Friendly's Restaurant and used the Fudge Pump when making sundaes. End of story. Wrinkle
Pianosaurus Named after the popular 80s plastic toy piano which is shaped like a dinosaur - and the keyboard is on the right side. This New York City band plays their songs on kid toys instruments, including the Pianosaurus!  Rock Dinosaur
The Pillows They were all sitting in one of the member's room, and they saw an album on his dresser that said 'the pillows' and they were like, "Hey. You wanna use that name?" and they did. Pankeyke
The Pillows They got the name from a promotional poster hanging up on lead guitarist Yoshiaki Manabe's wall for Cherry Record's "Pillows and Prayers" compilation album. Adam
The Pinata Riders The drummer, Joe BART, was p*O'd about their wardrobe falling apart at the end of every gig during the slam dance. He said on stage in 1990 after the first tour - "We're F*cking pinatas, what we are. Riding F*cking pinatas." Rolling Stone contacted the band and that night they changed the name just before signing with MCA. zone
Pinhead Gunpowder Billie Joe Armstrong of Green Day's other band, Pinhead Gunpowder, got its name from a type of highly caffinated green tea. Joe
Pink I read in a Seventeen magazine that her parents called her Pink because that was the color her mother's pregnancy test turned. I can't believe people are saying things about a guy said her privates were pink--Pink is not that slutty. Shante Baker
Pink In a Playboy interview, Pink herself gave this story. She was best friends with a black man throughout her teen years and he had never been with a white woman before and wanted to see a white womans vagina. He asked, she abliged and when he saw it he yelled out, "its pink!" She took that name and that is why she is known as Pink. Kent
Pink This was said in a radio interview. Alicia Moore wore white see-thru pants to school and her underwear was bright pink. This was also heard on MTV, but I forgot the program it was on.  Completely Anonymous
Pink On Making the Video they were talking about why her name is Pink an dits cause shes so much like a tom-boy her friends would call her pink cause its girly so it sounds weird for that type of person to be called pink gloria
Pink Pink got her name after the infamous character "Mr. Pink" played by Steve Buchemi, from the movie "Reservoir Dogs". Her friends thought that it suited her since she acted a lot like Buchemi's character. She has said it herself. Johnny_Rotten
Pink On (Mtv, Making the Video), that her name is a 'Resevoir Dogs' reference. she and her friends all assumed the identities of the characters from that movie. They dubbed her Mr. Pink. She jokingly said she dropped the Mr. because she didn't what people thinking she was a drag queen. jay
Pink FROM AN INTERVIEW IN PLAYBOY, A BLACK GUY FRIEND OF HERS ASKED IF HE COULD SEE HER PRIVATES, BEACAUS HE HAD NEVER SEEN A WHITE GIRL NAKED. SHE PULLED DOWN HER PANTS AND HE SAID, "IT'S PINK" ANDY
Pink she once dyed her pubes pink and her friend caught her doing it and named her pink!! Suze
Pink In school, someone pulled down her pants and she turned pink. ~*^Girl^*~
Pink Her family used to call her "Pink" as a nickname, because her skin was so pale that when she got embarassed she turned so pink. She changed her hair to that color AFTER she kept the nickname.  ~Music*Luvr~
Pink Floyd Ok for Cody Erekson let me fix a couple things in your description. Gilmour was not an original member of pink floyd. He replaced Syd Barrett Floyd's lead guitarist and lead singer. After Barrett went crazy due to LSD he was replaced by gilmour. Having said that PINK FLOYD got their name from to blues artists PINK Anderson and FLOYD Council. Got it? Sean
Pink Floyd It's all in the initials people... They express their entire view of the world with their name before you ever listen to any of their negatively undertoned music. PF. Like pfffff fuck this world that we live in. Same reason that Umphrey's McGee is named so, because they are reinventing where the revolution went wrong by putting a more positive spin on the world and encouraging us to think.. UM... Robert Paulson
Pink Floyd Four of the original members were fans of blues musicians Pink Anderson and Floyd Council. The band may have done their share of drugs, but smoking loads of pot DOES NOT make everything look pink. Just because your eyes get bloodshot doesn't change the colour of what you are looking at! Having several years of marijuana usage behind me as experience, I can say that not once has the colour of anything ever changed whilst stoned. Perhaps the person who wrote that meant LSD? ThatSusan
Pink Floyd A little known fact: a "pink floyd" is actually a reference in British slang for a man's genitals. Although this was not the reason the band picked out the name, it was something they considered before dubbing themselves "Pink Floyd." Blue Sphere
Pink Floyd Chris, when you smoke marijuana, you can count the blood vessels travelling across the lens in your eye. jezzer
Pink Floyd Pink Floyd, possibly the greatest rock n' roll bands of all time, was named by Syd Barret, co-founder of the band. Though later on Syd claims the name was given to him by an overhead flying saucer, the band was actually named after two blues musicians: Pink Anderson and Floyd Council (though the two never played together) Keegan
Pink Floyd The original members, Waters, Wright, Mason, and Barrett were fans of blues music especially the blues musicians Pink Anderson and Floyd Council. The original name of the band was The Pink Floyd Sound and fans called them simply Pink Floyd. This information can be found in the book "A Saucerful of Secrets", an extensive biography of the band and its memebers. Doc Scott
Pink Floyd From what i've heard, Roger Waters nickanme was "Pinky" as a child, and I dunno if that influenced the band's name whatsoever but there ya go. Kim
Pink Floyd The stories about the two blues artists are the CORRECT ones. I refer any who wish to confirm this, to Nicholas Schaffner's biography of the band, A Saucerful of Secrets: The Pink Floyd Odyssey. FloydWright
Pink Floyd Syd had a blues compilation album. Two of the featured artists were Georgia artists PINK Anderson and FLOYD Council. It was a random selection and the band went on to greatness and fame. James Jupiter
Pink Floyd I was in London in 1966-67 and had friends in a multilevel brownstone house--a commune, really--at 101 Cromwell Road in southwest London. The house had two cats, Pink and Floyd, and I was told that it was from the cats that Pink Floyd got its name. I didn't believe the story until I went to a swarming psychedelic party at the house and members of Pink Floyd showed up. That convinced me. I've since heard that Pink Floyd took its name from the first names of Pink Anderson and Floyd Council. I've wondered whether the cats weren't originally named after Anderson and Council, but I'm quite certain that the group more immediately took its name from the cats.  Rick Abrams
Pink Floyd Only ONE of these entries is even close to the truth. I have no idea where everyone gets these inane stories for band names, but for Christ's sake do some research before you just spew out some words you are parading around as "knowledge." If you read books and listen to early interviews you will find there is no hidden mystery in the name, which is a combination of Pinkney "Pink" Anderson and Floyd Council. I believe the name was chosen by Syd Barrett, as "The Pink Floyd Sound." Eventually they dropped the "sound" and were known as "The Pink Floyd." Around the time Syd was thrown out and Gilmour joined the "the" at the beginning disappeared. Jeffrey Sapphire
Pink Floyd If you look up Pink Floyd in a dictionary of euphamisms, you will see that it actually means "Whale Penis." If the band coincidentally chose this name, that would be quite the error! NumbaWunTuffGuy
Pink Floyd The official story is that it was taken from the names of two Georgia bluesmen, Pink Anderson and Floyd Council. However... I was working in a used bookstore about 15 years ago, when we happened to get in a big "coffeetable" book on Whaling. I was browsing through it, looking at the lovely photographs and reading some of the lore, when I came across a long-dead sailor's account, written over 150 years ago, of the whales' mating ritual, which contained this quote: "After mating, the bull whale rises to the surface, and rolls over, exposing his pink floyd." Now, it was no secret to British bands in the mid-60's that Beatlemania started in Germany when the band started packing the Star Club in Hamburg, due in large part to the band's name sounding very much like "peedle," a German little-boy word for penis. This contention is stated as a fact in The Beatles' 1975 official biography "Shout" by Hunter Davies. Bands have been naming themselves after male genitlia ever since. Georgia bluesmen? I have this picture in my head of the band sitting around a table trying to pick a name, and all of them rolling on the floor laughing for 20 minutes when someone suggested "Pink Floyd." Believe what you will... Zoid Asteroid Machine
Pink Floyd There is a little controversy as to how they got the name. A few Americans insisted that the group was named after a character from "The Andy Griffith Show"-Floyd the Barber. However, the official reason was that two record producers named Pink and Floyd make up the band's moniker. oldtimer
Pink Floyd Syd chose the name "The Pink Floyd Sound" as a spur of the moment decision when a band preforming at the same gig had already signed up using their old name "Tea Set." The name was derived from the first names of 2 blues musicians: Pink Anderson and Floyd Council. George
Pink Floyd it was picked by syd barret alone,its a hoax about producers bein named pink and such,barret named then after 2 blues musicians in the delta (pink boogie anderson)and (floyd dipper boy council). know it all bout floyd
Pink Floyd The 'Pink' was named after bluesman Pink Anderson and the Floyd came from bluesman Floyd Council. Originally, in the Syd Barrett era, they were called The Pink Floyd. Back when they were psychedelic. I have every Pink Floyd album by the way. Tom
Pink Floyd It is really a double meaning. The official reason was that both "Pink" and "Floyd" were part of the names of 2 of their record producers, but one part of the reason at that they chose this, is because when someone is very high on marijuana, their eyes become bloodshot and everything looks pink, which Im sure they have had plenty of experience with. chris
Pink Floyd No idea if this is true, but it's kind of intereting nonetheless. Someone once told me that Roger Waters used to have recurring nightmares about an antagonist named "Pink Floyd." toohottoholdonto
Pink Floyd I would like to add that the surnames of the two musicians whose first names form "Pink Floyd" are: (Pink) Anderson and (Floyd) Council. Mark
Pink Floyd Syd Barrett came up with the name in the spurr of the moment after two blues artists, Pink Anderson and Floyd Council. Elijah A.
Pink Floyd Syd Barrett combined the names of two of his favorite Georgia bluesmen- Pink Anderson and Floyd Council Mike
Pink Floyd Before the band was together, Gilmoure liked to go to a small blues cafe quite often. There were two old men there that he talked to. They taught him a lot about the practicality of life and the magic of music. The last name of one of them was Pink, the other's last name was Floyd. Cody Erekson
The Pink Pansies In their childhood the memebers of the future band were bullied and were called pink pansies so they called them selves the pink pansies ur face
PinMonkey The band was gettin ready to do a concert and they had forgot to pick out a name. When this occured to them they were watching an episode of "The Simsons" where Homer quits his job to go to the bowling alley and pursue his childhood dream of wanting to be a PinMonkey who sets up the pins back before they had machines to do it automatically Derico
Pirate Red Ship It came from an a level english book where a child had written a story about some pirates that died, the story was called pirate red ship  victoria
Pixie Lott Lott is her real surname, and she got the name "Pixie" from a nickname her mother gave her because she looked like a fairy. Lefty Lucy
The Pixies After trying long and hard to figure out a band name, Joey Santiago pulled out his dictionary (which he apparently always had on him) and randomly came upon Pixie. With 4 members in the band (Black Francis, Kim Deal, David Lovering and Santiago) they made Pixie plural.  Annie
Pixies [from Alec Eiffel Pixies Bio] "It was Joey Santiago who thought up the name The Pixies, although he apparently didn't even know what the word meant at that time. "With English not his first language," Charles explained, "Joey has a fascination for new words. 'Oh I like that word,' he says, and looks it up and sees what it means. Believe it or not, he wanted to call the band Pixies In Panoply, but we shortened it a little."  Fu Manchu
The Pixies Joey Santiago suggested the bandname "Pixies in Panoply." According to some sources, Joey would learn new words, and push them, though he didn't know what the words fully meant. Another source says that they liked the definition of the word "Pixie". Either way, it was shortened to the Pixies. WetMetalThong
Pixies That stuff about Christianity is nonsense, in fact they liked the definition of 'pixie' in the dictionary, something like 'mischievous little elf'.  Chris Scott
The Pixies Simply by Joey rifling through a dictionary Dale
The Pixies "It was Joey who thought up the name The Pixies, although he apparently didn't even know what the word meant at that time. 'With English not his first language, Joey has a fascination for new words. 'Oh I like that word,' he says, and looks it up and sees what it means. Believe it or not, he wanted to call the band Pixies In Panoply, but we shortened it a little." - Black Francis Lauren
Pixies It refers to the old Christian definition. The souls of unbaptized dead children residing in Limbo. Pat
Placebo They chose this name to make fun of other bands named after drugs, as placebo is a fake drug. (They were first called 'Ashtray Heart' but when the 3th member joined they changed it to Placebo) ???
Placebo The latin word "placebo" actually means "I will please". 1st person singular future of "placere", "to please". latin@school
Placebo Originally called Ashtray Heart, they decided to go for a name associated with drugs, the singer - Brian - jokingly said "placebo" (a placebo is a pill made of sugar or a inneffective medicine, convincing the patient they are getting treatment... power of the mind) and they ended up using it. QuasiMolko
Placebo A placebo is a medecine that hasn't got any effect at all, but the band members said that their name is a latin word that means "what pleases". Gode
Placebo Named after the 'Placebo effect." The placebo effect is the measurable, observable, or felt improvement in health not attributable to treatment. This effect is believed by many people to be due to the placebo itself in some mysterious way. A placebo (Latin for “I shall please”) is a medication or treatment like sugar pills or starch pills. They dont actually work, but depend on the fact that the patient thinks they work. Even “fake” surgery and “fake” psychotherapy are considered placebos.  Trill
Placebo Everyone at the time were nameing their bands after drugs, so they decided to name theirs' after one that didn't work. B-J Warren
Placebo They were thinking about naming the band Heroin or Cocaine, but then thought, why not choose a drug that doesn't work? themorningsad
Placid Quake Using the initials of the lead guitar player, PQ, the drummer came up with this oxymoronic description for the band's music...long before Quiet Riot came out with theirs. Vic Barry
Plankeye From the alleged words of Christ found in Matthew 7:1-6 and Luke 6:37-42, "You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye." Referencing the Christian band's self-perception as a group of sinners with no right to judge others.  Kristy
Plastiscines Plastiscine is a brand name of modeling clay popular in Europe. That word is also used in the Beatles classic "Lucy In the Sky with Diamonds". This French all-woman group is kind of like a younger 21st century Go-Gos or Bangles. They write, sing and play their own songs so check 'em out! Rock'n'Roll Is Coming Back 2 Life
Platinum Blonde So named because all of the band members had platinum blonde hair. Bass player Kenny MacLean and singer Mark Holmes were previously hairdressers amongst other jobs. :) Celeste
Play They were named play, because their manageer, Laila Bagge gave them a toy with the word Play on it and it triggereda thought about being playful and having fun and knowing that's it's ok to play, even if you're a grown up. Sara
Plus One They were originally going to call it 5 plus 1, meaning that there were five of them and the one stands for God. But Gabe thought that they should just name it Plus One, because God was the one responsible for their success. EJS
Poco Poco is spanish for "small" Jimmy
Poco Poco was originally called Pogo after the Walt Kelly cartoon. However he didn't like the band using the name so he filed an injunction against them using it. Sence they had built up a good following in the LA area, it was decided that rather than change the name, they would merely take the -off the G and made it a C thus you have Poco! Scott Erickson
POD POD stands for Proof Of Death; as in a death certificate. I've heard the band say this in interviews on two separate occassions. Momus
Poe Annie Danielewski was nicknamed 'Poe' by her parents after wearing a halloween costume based on an Edgar Allen Poe short story, "The Masquerade of Red Death," at a very young age. The name stuck, and now she's making beautiful music : D Dominic
Poe Annie Danielewski dressed up as Edgar Allen Poe for a Halloween party with her parents. The name Poe stuck. Avery
The Pogues Whoever wrote about the Pogues... Pogue Mahone is not Gaelic - - Pog Mo Thoin = Kiss My (Irish) A** GAELIC GIRL
The Pogues From their Irish roots, they thought of the name 'The Pogues' because of a Gaelic term 'Pogue Mahone' meaning 'Kiss my A***'. drmegabite.4t.com
The Pogues No great Mystery here. After starting out as the "Millwall Chainsaws", Shane and co. changed their name to "Pogue Mahone" on a suggestion from Peter "Spider" Stacy. They truncated the name to "The Pogues" shortly before their first record deal. "Pogue Mahone" is Gaelic for "kiss my @$$". JimBobNatureBoy
The Pogues The Pogues original name was "Pogue Mahone", which is Gaelic for 'kiss my a**'; this obviously didn't fly once the record companies and radio stations got wind of it, so they simply shortened it to the Pogues. Carl
Point Of Grace The group was originally called Say So, after Psalm 107:2, which reads: "Let the redeemed of the LORD say so." However, in 1992 the girls realized their band's name would be copyright infringement if they continued to use it, as another, bigger band already had the name. After several months, they finally chose their current name, derived from C.S. Lewis' quotation that "Christians...live at the point of God's grace." Edward Genereux
Pointer Sisters Pointer is their last name and they're sisters. mads.
Poison They started as a cover band called Paris, then one day they heard a preacher on the radio saying how rock n' roll was POISONing the world...so they decided to go with Poison instead of the much queerer...Paris. acidmilkshake
The Police Although correct about IRS and FBI, Sting's name has nothing to do with any 'institution of authority'. He used to wear a certain black and yellow sweater on stage that made him look like a bee or a wasp. Somehow it became the cooler sounding 'Sting'. cavefish
The Police 'rocky' is *way* off the mark. The Police chose their name based on a theme of U.S. institutions of authority (to wit, I.R.S. Records, the FBI booking agency and Sting). Stewart Copeland's father (Miles Sr.)was a founder of the C.I.A. and Miles Jr. was the band's manager and now manages Sting. rasafrasit
The Police  Stewart Copeland's father--Miles Copeland, Jr.--was a co-founder of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). His brother, Miles III, was a founding partner of the record label known as the International Recording Syndicate (IRS). And, his other brother, Ian, was a founding partner of the talent agency called Frontier Booking International (FBI). Derived from trivia under the IMDB entry for "The Police (music group). " Which can be cross-referenced via "Sting (Feyd-Rautha)" under the cast listings for "Dune: The Motion Picture. Carycomic
The Police I've read somewhere that this name was adopted because the drummer was Stewart Copeland, and "cop" means...a policeman. Paul
The Police They got their name from Stuart Copeland (who now does the music for the Spyro the Dragon videogames)'s idea that it would get them support from the local law enforcement. It has nothing to do with Copeland's father founding the C.I.A. Regressive Trance
The Police Because the band members all wore black, they were sometimes mistaken for British policemen. rocky
The Police I read on a really old tape cover that they got their name from reading it graffiti on an unmarked police car. Anonymous
The Police Actually rasafrasit and rocky are both off the mark. To quote Stewart Copeland-"We saw it on the side of a car...period."  Marc
The Police In interviews, Stewart Copeland often joked that they called themselves The Police due to all the free publicity they would get around the world. BizMarky
The Polyphonic Spree Founder Tim DeLaughter was stuck for a name for his new group. He was a fan of those old Wacky Package stickers, and had a framed set on his wall. Studying it for inspiration, his eye settled on "Polly Dent" (parrot toothpaste) and from there it was a short jump to "Polyphonic Spree". BaudKarma
Pop Will Eat Itself Pop Will Eat Itself (PWEI) got their name from the headline of a newspaper article about the band Carter The Unstoppable Sex Machine, who in turn got their name from the headline of a smalltown newspaper article about a recently deceased old man named Carter who had had a voracious sexual appetite. vacuum kitty
Popol Vuh Named after the book of scripture of the Quiché, one of the ancient Mayan kingdoms of Guatemala. Rob
Porch Dog The band was looking for a name when one day as I was picking up the dog shit in my yard, I said isn't this ironic me the Porch Dog," thats what they called me at work,because of being the top producer or top dog at my place of business", picking up my Porch Dog's shit!At that moment God spoke to me and said , that's a good name for the band. I ran it pass the guys during the next practice and at first everyone had a puzzled look on thier face but after a few seconds we all look at each other and said thats it. We feel it's not offensive it's kind of PG rated. Our first gig under that name as it is writen accross my keyboards was on a Sunday afternoon and the Bar/Resturant allowed children in and the kids looked at the keyboards and said Mommy we like them.  John P. Labor
The Porkers Porkers were once called the 'Pork Hunts' They had to change the name because it was simply too offensive. Marlon

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