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Names -> Band Name Origins -> P, Page 3
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 4774 Band Name Origin entries on the site.
Name | Origin | Submitted by: | ||
| Porno for Pyros | The band's name pays homage to Perry Farrell's former band, Jane's Addiction. The name describes the cover art for Jane's Addiction's "Nothing's Shocking" album. | meatee | ||
| Porno for Pyros | In the early 90's while all the fires were going on in the hills of Southern CA. Many of them set by arsonists, Perry turned on the tv saw all the fire and thought if the arsonists are watching this is like "Porno for Pyros". There are many interviews documenting this. | lola | ||
| Porno For Pyros | Lead singer Perry Farrell was looking through a fireworks magazine and commented that the whole thing seemed like "smut for arsonists". Hence, PFP. | Dr. G | ||
| Porno For Pyros | Perry Farrell was watching the Los Angeles riots on t.v. With all the people torching buildings and all of it being shown on all the t.v. channels, he said it was like pornography for pyromaniacs. Hence the PFP. | TheRev | ||
| Porno for Pyros | I heard that Perry was reading a fireworks catalog, and in the middle was a section of porno ads. He said, "look porno for pyros" and it stuck. | Mastiff66 | ||
| Portishead | The band is named after a sleepy port town in England. The town in which band member, Geoff Barrow, spent his teen years. | Raiyneamon | ||
| Portishead | A trian station in England | Bona | ||
| Portishead | The band are from Bristol, England and Portishead is a nearby seaside town | Chris | ||
| The Postal Service | The two main members, Jimmy Tamborello and Ben Gibbard, lived in different cities. Jimmy would write the music and then mail the tapes to Ben who would put lyrics over it. Hence, the U.S. postal service made this band possible. | some kid | ||
| The Postal Service | Since their CD was made through emailing the music files back and forth and manipulating the sounds around to get that techno depth to it, they named themselves (who both belong to other bands), The Postal Service. | Shelly | ||
| Powderfinger | It's a Neil Young song. | $tav | ||
| Powderfinger | The name was borrowed from the title of a Neil Young song. | Powerslave | ||
| Pre-Teen Braves | This unique Australian band stole their name from The Simpsons. | Alex | ||
| Prefab Sprout | The band had heard "Jackson" by Nancy Sinatra & Lee Hazelwood from around 1967. They misheard one line in the song- "We got married in a fever, hotter than a peppered sprout" as "hotter than a prefab sprout which they liked so much they coined it for the band's name. | John Bennett | ||
| Prefab Sprout | Name originated from band frontman Paddy McAloon's mishearing of a line found in "Jackson", a Nancy Sinatra record. | Heathcliff the Cat | ||
| Prefab Sprout | Paddy McAloon mis-heard a lyric from a Frank Sinatra song (Come Fly With Me) and named the band after this. | Stig O'Hara | ||
| Prefab Sprout | Name originated from band frontman Paddy McAloon's mishearing of a line found in "Jackson", a Nancy Sinatra record. | Heathcliff the Cat | ||
| Prefab Sprout | It originated from a 60's Nancy Sinatra song 'Hotter than a Pepper Sprout', so says band singer Paddy MacAloon. | Danimal Von Kronrnburg III | ||
| The Presidents of the United States of America | In the early days of the band, they would just make up a new name each time they played. At one party they named themselves the longest name they could think of...and that name eventually stuck. | Joseph Fernandez | ||
| The Pretenders | Chrissie Hynde was just about to sign their first record deal, and realised they hadn't thought of a name. she looked around and they had some old records lying aobut, one of which was The Platters' "The Great Pretender". So she took it from that. | Gino | ||
| Pretty Boy Floyd | "Pretty Boy Floyd" was a nickname for infamous bank robber Charles Arthur Floyd (1904 – 1934). From 1925 through the early 1930s he was known to commit numerous bank robberies and be suspected in other robberies and murders in the U.S. midwest. He was sentenced to life in prison in Ohio but escaped from prison and was subsequently shot to death by police. Despite all his criminal exploitations, he gained a "Robin Hood"-like reputation in the eyes of many. Woody Guthrie wrote a ballad about him, reflecting that romanticized status, and the ballad has been performed by various singers. | Trina Lufkin | ||
| Pretty Girls Make Graves | Taken from the Smiths song of the same name. | Aaron...that's right, Aaron | ||
| Pretty Poison | Named after a 1968 moive with Tuesday Weld and Anthony Perkins. | movie | ||
| Pretty Ricky | They got their names because they are all brothers. Back in school, they used to dress alike. All the girls called them Pretty Ricky, so that's what it is now!! | Neisha | ||
| Previously Enjoyed | PE got their name when their guitarist and band founder, Kenny B, was browsing through a movie store which had a section entitled 'Previously Enjoyed Movies'. It suited the band, as each member had been in a different band that had kicked them out. | Leslie Russell | ||
| Prime Circle | The band consists of 4 members. They mean the 4 of them form a circle of very good friends and God in the middle to Support them. God being their main reason for success and thus the name Prime Circle. | Q | ||
| Primus | In an interview with Herb, he says that the name changed from Primate because there was another band already called "The Primates". To avoid legal retribution, Les pulled out a dictionary and found a close alternate. Primus means "the primary one". It is also the name of a Russian stove (and a popular stove company in parts of the world), an insurance company, a camping equipment company, an international telecommunications company, a Belgian beer brewed in Haacht, and an Internet Service Provider. Primus means "top of the class" in Dutch and German, and "I feel great" in Swedish. This was taken from the Cheesy Homepage. | EZCHEEZ | ||
| Prince | Prince's father himself in an interview with MTV during the premire of Under The Cherry Moon in 1986 (in Wyoming for a contest winner) stated that he had a jazz band originally called Prince. He subsequently gave his son the name, who in turn adopted it for his band. FACT! | djm122270 | ||
| Prince | Prince Rogers Nelson was the name of the jazz trio his father played in, Nelson being his fathers given name. | Jim Gardner | ||
| Prince | His birth name is Prince Rogers Nelson. & He was one of the first to be 'too cool for a last name'. | DiosDelSex0 | ||
| Procol Harum | The band's manager picked the name. He had a friend who had a cat called Procol Harum, and he thought it sounded good. The band didn't know what it meant, but later found out the (differently spelt) Latin phrase 'procul harun' means 'beyond these things', which they thought appropriate. Why the cat was named procol harum is not known. | Paulmarkj | ||
| Procol Harum | Bastardized Latin for "beyond these things" ? should be 'procul his' ? and allegedy the name of a pedigree cat. | dash | ||
| Procol Harum | It is (roughly) latin for "far from these things," though misspelled through phone translation. It was the name of a friend of the manager's cat. Gary Brooker says it was a happy accident, that they were lucky the cat's name didn't mean "I'm going to buy a cow" or something. | mike | ||
| The Prodigy | The word "prodigy" means to be endowed with exceptional or superior qualities. Obviously their superior ability is their music. I tend to agree with this and feel that it is a very fitting name... And just a note to all you ignorant, annoying grungers/goths/metlers/whatever you want to call yourselves, the prodigy are not a metal or grunge band! Are not, never have been, never will be! They will always be hardcore dance!!! Listen to some of their older songs! | Alex | ||
| Prodigy | Nothing about SAT scores here. Liam Howlett ( Prodigy frontman) was a BIG analog synthesiser fan, and one of the earliest keyboards he had was a Moog Prodigy. Hence the name. | EroXenos | ||
| Prodigy | Supposedly, all the members of this band are SAT full scorers (i.e., 1600ers). | Shantanu Biswas | ||
| Propagandhi | Simple really, they combined two words, propaganda (information that is spread for the purpose of promoting some cause) and Gandhi (famous peaceful protestor). Combining the two gives us Propagandhi, best thing to ever come out of Portage la Prairie, Manitoba. | mattt | ||
| Propellerheads | The term is California slang for a computer nerd. When the band members heard a friend from California say "propellerhead" in a conversation, they thought it was a perfect name. | Tommy | ||
| Prussian Blue | Three reasons given by the Gaede twins: 1) eye color of members Lynx and Lamb. 2) love of Prussian Blue paint color. 3) lack of so-called Prussian Blue color (from Zyklon B use) in gas chambers of Nazi concentration camps! Claimed proof of the band's initial Holocaust denial. | Rob Arndt | ||
| Psy | Short for PSYcho! | Robert D. Arndt Jr. | ||
| The Psychedelic Furs | the name was again changed from Radio to the Psychedelic Furs. The name had been coined as a play on the word "psychedelic" and as a reference to the psychedelic period of the mid-sixties. Richard liked the ideas that were formed in this period and wanted to incorporate the word "psychedelic" in the title of the band. At the time, 1976, "psychedelic" was hardly ever used. So he ran through names with "psychedelic" in front of them, such as the Psychedelic Shirts, the Psychedelic Shoes, etc. and finally came up with the Psychedelic Furs. | Boris | ||
| Public Air Waves | They wanted the name "Pubic Hair" but that had already been taken. So they changed it to "Public Air". That name was also taken already, so they became Public Air Waves. | Javine | ||
| Public Enemy | Chuck D picked this name becuse it refers to the black man in the US being "public enemy number 1" to the us government. The band logo is a picture of band member Flava Flav in the crosshairs of a scope. This is used to symbolize this sentiment . to sysbolized this. | zoemills | ||
| Public Enemy | Everything is correct from the above user. However E-Love, LL Cool J's right hand man (the hype man or guy who carried L's radio) in the 80's was the silhouette in the logo. | Cory | ||
| Puddle Of Mudd | the band were playing in a basement when they first started and one night it started to rain really hard and the rain water dripped down from small holes on the walls into the dirty basment and formed a puddle of mudd thats how they got their name | ray | ||
| Puddle of Mudd | The flat was flooded, leaving muddy puddles and the name looked cooler with DD on the end to match the DD in "puddle"! | YoYo | ||
| Puddle Of Mudd | The Missouri river had flooded their studio one day and it left a "puddle of mudd" so they decided to call themselves that. | Tiffani | ||
| Puddle Of Mudd | Well, first off, this one IS right, unlike the other. Puddle of Mudd even commented on it themselves in an interview, i think MTV but it matters not. Either way, their recording studio, it flooded greatly in those areas of the city, and one day, a flood caused water and mud stuff to enter into the studio. The next day, band shows up and all thats left is a "puddle of mudd" blah. end stoy. | god | ||
| Puddle Of Mudd | They got this name because outside their recording studio there was always a HUGE puddle of mudd and the usually always walked in it, when it was time for them to decide on a name-needless to say-they had to do it fast. So they looked at the puddle outside the studio then never went away and thus creating the rock band Puddle of Mudd | Kory Stuhler | ||
| Pulp | From an economics schoolbook which had the commodity "Arabicus Pulp" listed. Jarvis dropped the first bit. | DDT | ||
| Pure Prairie League | They found the name in the old movie "Dodge City" staring Errol Flynn. There was a woman's temparance group marching in Dodge City by that name. | Joey Ace | ||
| Push Down and Turn | A minor band from Indianapolis who got their name from the inscriptions on child-proof safety caps. It's also printed on some brands of bottled beer. | indyhick | ||
| The Push Stars | Their lead singer was making a phone call to some number, and the message on the other end said something to the effect of "To repeat this message, push star." | Andy | ||
| Pussy Galore | The name comes from Honor Blackman's character in the James Bond film, Goldfinger. | Bobo | ||
| Pussy Riot | From their leader: "The female sex organ, which is supposed to be receiving and shapeless, suddenly starts a radical rebellion against the cultural order, which tries to constantly define it and show its appropriate place.” | Robert D. Arndt Jr. | ||
| PYT | A lot of people think their name means "Pretty young things", but they said on their official website that it means "Prove yourself true" | ishbufallon |
Entries starting with P are split into multiple pages: 1 2 3
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