S, 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).

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 S are split into multiple pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6

There are 4772 Band Name Origin entries on the site.

Name	Origin	Submitted by:
Sixx: AM	The band name comes from the surnames if it members: Nikki Sixx, DJ Ashba & James Michael	adam walsh
Size 14	Frontman Linus of Hollywood wears size 14 shoes.	RevengeFromMars YouTube
Skains Mates	Ross from Skains Mates read the ever so popular "romeo and juliet" and a skains mate is a slag word used in the play meaning "gangster".	Ross
Skainsmates	Well it all started out in Rages' freshmen english class when they were reading romeo and Juliet. Skiansmates means "gangster or tyrant" Rage found the word and dicussed it over with JG, the two liked it and thats how Skainsmates was formed.	Rage & JG
Skid Row	Slang for a rundown inner city neighborhoods where alcoholics, junkies, street people can afford to live.	Robert D. Arndt Jr.
Skillet	john cooper(singer) joined another band with another drummer and mix of people, so they thought of mixing things in a skillet	steve mcmahan
Skillet	Skillet, whose music is all about God and a call to holiness, chose this name because of the trio's diversity, with John Cooper from funk, Ken Steorts from punk, and Trey McClurkin from rock and roll. John says on their label's website, "It was a matter of throwing all these styles into the skillet and seeing what we cooked up."	MegaMadMan
Skinny Puppy	In fact, (Skinny Puppy frontman) cEvin Key had the idea for the name before Nivek Ogre had joined. While the name can be interpreted a number of different ways and has many different levels of meaning, the basic idea is that of an abused, neglected animal who doesn't speak much but when he does it is a pain filled yelp. Early on, the concept for the band was to look at the whole world through the eyes of a dog. This resulted in Ogre's lyrics for "K-9" which became what is in some ways the first Puppy song. From "www.waningmoon.com"	3252432
Skinny Puppy	Rumors had it that after recording their first demo tape (and a few marijuana joints later), cEvin Key woke up the next morning with the name "Skinny Puppy" written on it. It's a cute story... but not accurate. In fact, the name came to them because a friend of the band had a Levrier puppy they were quite attached to, and being also fans of horror movies, the name "Skinny Puppy" sounded just right to them.	the Grey
Skrillex	From a nickname he had as a kid.	Crafthead
Skyhooks	The Australian band Skyhooks supposedly got their name from a fictional organisation that appears in the film Earth vs. the Flying Saucers.	Dr Gonzo
Slash'S Snakepit	the place where slash recorded his new songs (that axl wouldn't let him release with guns) was called snakepit studios. plus, slash loves snakes.	wez
Slayer	they were originally called Dragon Slayer (after a film i think) but dropped the 'dragon' part to make it just Slayer	woody
Slayer	The comon thought abotu this band is that itisa synonym for Satan laughs as you eternally rot, but this was actually (and to me obviously) after the name slayer was come up with. It is really named after a game "Dragon Slayer" for the NES and they later shortened it to Slayer.	Nick D.
Slayer	It used to be "dragonslayer" after the movie , then it got shortened	Scot Sacks
Slayer	They wanted to call themselves "dragonslayer"; after a sci-fi movie popular at the time the band was formed. But, they didn't like the way that sounded,so it got shortened to Slayer	Patrick Creeden
Slayer	Slayer is Satan Laughs As You Eternally Rot. They say 'laughing as you eternally rot' on the song Live Undead from the South of Heaven Album, and on the linear notes to Divine Intervention are the words Satan Laughs As You Eternally Rot. But before Slayer became Slayer, they were called Dragon Slayer.	Jaystone
Slayer	Slayer stands for, Satan Laughs As You Eternally Rot, you can find it hidden somewhere on the cd's for example on the booklet of Divine Intervention	rick
Slayve	one of the band members got fed up with trying to think of a band name so she did an anagram of all the letters of our first names and came up with slayve	Laura Westeng
Sleater Kenny	It was named after the corner at where they praticed	Lucky
Sleater-Kinney	Named after the street in Olympia, WA where they had a practice space.	Michelle
Sleepy Eddie James	He got this nickname from the habit of performing entire songs with his eyes closed as if asleep or in a trance.	Rolf Rübeli
Sleigh Bells	They came up with this name on Christmas morning, and decided to use it for a band.	Katherine
Slick Shoes	From the movie "The Goonies" While running from the bad guys, the kids are crossing over a creek on a log, when data, exclaims "Guys I have an Idea...Slick Shoes!!" he pulls a strap, and the back of his shoes spit out oil all over the log. The bad guys slip on it and fall.	Chase
Slim Shady	Marshal Mathers was thinking of names for himself. He remembered a street he once lived on called 'Shady Lane'. He started thinking about all the different words that rhyme with the word 'shady'. Slim because he's sly and shady because it rhymed.	Sarge Dacey
Slingshot 57	It comes out of the book of David (I'm pretty sure it's David) in the Bible where David uses a slingshot to kill Goliath. The verse number is 57. Hence: Slingshot 57.	Chris
Slipknot	Regarding them naming themselves after a stone called "Slipknot". It was the other way around. From an interview with that author: "A recurring theme in your stories is an allusion to the music you listen to. Sometimes this is subtle, done in word choices, sometimes more blatant and dramatic, such as the story in "From the Borderlands", "Slipknot." In addition to being a writer, you also play drums in the band, The Diablo Red. How would you describe your personal relationship to music and how it affects your writing? Music is very important to me. I mostly listen to dark, aggressive music, so the lyrics and the subsequent emotions upon hearing them naturally creep into my fiction. The piece you mention in FROM THE BORDERLANDS is called "Slipknot" because of a line from a song called "(sic)" off their first album: "You can't kill me 'cause I'm already inside you." This line stuck in my head for years until one day I got the idea for the story that resulted. The tale actually opens with that exact line.	dvVIII
Slipknot	A slipknot is the name for the knot used in a Noose, Used for hangin people.	Raptorrat
Slipknot	On the first Slipknot tape, Mate.Feed.Kill.Repeat., which came out before Corey Taylor was the singer, there was a song called Slipknot, which (sic) evolved from. The band decided to name themselves after the song.	Jaxson Shickler
Slipknot	has to do with suicide !u tie the knot in the wrope and slip off the chair SLIPKNOT!	god
Slipknot	The name comes from a short story written by Brett Alexander Savory titled (interestingly enough) "Slipknot". In fact the first line of the story begins, "Slipknot spoke: You can't kill me, 'cause I'm already inside you." Of course the lyrics "you can't kill me, cause I'm already inside you" can be found in the song "(Sic)" from their first album Slipknot. The short story can be found in the horror anthology "From the Borderlands" published by Warner Books	Tyler Durden
Slipknot	A slipknot is a type of knot that no matter how hard you try to get out of it you can't. So Slipknot felt that this represented their music and feelings very well, so they made it their name	Steve
Slipknot	Someone said they named themselves slipKnoT so they can have a capital K and T like KoRn.	Mark
Slipknot	The song slipknot was on the bands first album - mate feed kill repeat. They just thought it was a cool name.	Bean
Slipknot	A Slipknot is the king of knot used in typing a rope into a noose for hanging. Also called a Roeder Knot.	Mr.Magicarms
Slipknot	before the band had a name they were doing a gig and were suspending some speakers from the ceiling and they used slipknot, so the band decided to call themselves slipknot.	rolo-1
SlipKnot	A slip knot is NOT about tieing a knot and slipping off a chair to hang yourself, that is stupid. A slip knot is the name of a very common knot that allows some one too pull both ends of the rope and the knot "slips" right out. No having to struggle to get it undone because it gets tighter, the knot comes right out when you pull it tighter.	VnmisPoisn
Slipknot	Slipknot was a song on the bands demo, they thought it was kick ass name so thats how they got Slipknot.	we all got left behind
Slipknot	They knew that if they wanted to make it in the music Co. they had to have an origanal name, so they looked for something that ment moving or close to "automobile," they saw the definition for "slipknot" which is a knot that is tied that can also "slip" or move and the name stuck.	10FoOtMiDgEt
SlipKnoT	well you know how they picked out the name because of the other entries for slipknot but joey jordison (slipknot demon drummer+murderdoll guitarist) used to be a huge fan of KoRn. KoRn...slipKnoT...both of them have capital K's+ T's	Talena
Slipknot	Slipknot themselves said that they only picked it because it sounded cool. There is no meaning behind the name.	Brad Dey
Slipknot	Slipknot means "sleep not". In other words-don"t sleep. When guys met each other 4 the 1st time,they were watching NIGHTMARE ON THE ELM STREET.	Anthony
Slipknot	Its an acronym. Stupid Little Ignorant People Know Nothing Of Tomorrow.	Calvin
Slipknot	Slipknot, is a slang term for suicide/hanging yourself. class dismissed	from iowa
Slipknot	The word Slipknot means something like a knot and it can also mean a runner's knee.	Whitla
Slipknot	slipknot spelt backwards is tonkpils which is a drug used by goths in iowa	paddy
Slipknot	They thought slipknot because a slipknot is something tight.	Jake
Sloan	Sloan got a gig and were about to play although without a band name. When Jay Fergeson went into the restroom during soundcheck he noticed the word "sloan" on the urinals. Apparently he jokingly said to a couple of friends before the show "What about sloan?" The word spread through the crowd and everybody started yelling "sloan! sloan!" when they took the stage.	sloan expert
Sloan	Sloan is Canada's premier power pop group. Guitarist Jay Ferguson writes at sloanmusic.com: "It was the nickname of a guy named Jason Larson who plays in a band called The Straight Jackets.... His picture is on the cover of our Peppermint EP. He lived in Montreal for quite a while and he worked in a warehouse. His boss always called him 'slow one,' but with the French accent it turned into 'Sloan,' and all of his friends used to call him 'slow one' which just sounded like Sloan. And that's how we became Sloan."	gohlkus
Sloppy Seconds	A slang term for oral sex using the female appendage.	Indy
Small Faces	Gary Reynold's 'Cockroach Bollox' explanation is nonsense. A 'Face' was a mod fashion leader (cf. The Who's early hit 'I'm the Face'). And anyone who met Steve, Ronnie, Kenny and Mac will know that they were....small.	Paul Dennehy
Small Faces	The Cockroach Bollocks story is a LOAD of Bollocks! A "Face" was a generic name given to the followers of the "Mod" movement of mid-60's England as depicted in the Who's Quadrophenia. Management suggested the band align themselves with the "Face" movement. All the guys in the band were short so "Small" seemed an appropriate prefix for "Faces". Later, certain members eventually joined with Rod Stewart and Ron Wood to become just plain "Faces" even though by this time the Mod scene was mostly over.	Vim
Small Faces	They picked this up as it became apparent the three quarters of the band had small faces. Kenny Jones hasn't really got a small face	Daz
Small Faces	a "face" is another name for a person who is influencial in the world of mod fasion.	jett
Small Faces	Alternative readings: Faces - originally an up and coming personality in the criminal underground, adopted by the Mods as already noted Small - they were all short, and the grown out Beatles bowl-job haircuts they had made their faces look small !	SteveB
Small Faces	The lead singer was looking through a magazine which had an article on insects. And he happenned to comment that the brazilian cockroach depicted in the picture had an extremely small face and a large pair of bollocks. So two days later they decided to call the group the cockroaches bollox but later decided to call themselves the small faces.	Gary Reynolds
Small Faces	In a recent interview on Radio 2 (UK) one of the small faces (can't remember who) was asked about the origin of their name. He said that after a gig a girl said to them 'oh haven't you all got small faces'	George
Smash Mouth	Mike Ditka as head coach of the Chicago Bears called rough hard-hitting football, smashmouth football. The band being from Chicago took Smashmouth for their name.	Bettina Bischof
Smash Mouth	Smash mouth is a method of playing football. The old Chicago Bears used this meathod. This is where you constantly use your running back to move the ball up, by running plays up the middle.	G-Dawg
Smash Mouth	Smash Mouth got their name from a football comentary. It was his phrase for a bad hit to the face.	Susan
The Smashing Pumpkins	Billy had an ex-girlfriend from a small city outside Chicago which was popular in the area for pumpkin patches. After they broke up Billy named the band smashing pumpkins as a knock on his ex.	Sean
Smashing Pumpkins	The name is taken from the Shakespeare play "Twelfth Night": Sir Toby (or was it Feste, the clown?) climbs over the garden wall, looses his hold and drops on the other side, smashing pumpkins that grow there.	Erix
Smashing Pumpkins	I grew up in Elk Grove, Illinois... (every year)On the mornings after Holloween you'd see the remains of all the pumpkins that people left on their doorsteps, smashed to bits in the middle of the street. I also heard about this on local radio a couple times, but they added that these pranks seem to be a local suburban tradition, but I'm sure there are kids smashing pumpkins all over the nation.	Stoney Baloney
Smashing Pumpkins	Actually the name of the smashing pumpkins came from the comic Peanuts. In Peanuts, on Halloween, Linus would go to the pumpkin patch and look for the "great pumpkin." Since that name was already taken they decided to use smashing (adj. form). I saw this on the vh1 pop up video style of "Tonight, Tonight"	c-unit
Smashing Pumpkins	I can't believe no-one said this before but: While people were waiting for the original Doom to come out, there was a game created (using the engine I think) called "Smashing Pumpkins Into Small Piles of Putrid Debris". Also the reason for the cheat ID (the developer) SPISPOPD. Co-incidence? I think not	Garglfluz
Smashing Pumpkins	The Truth: After James Iha and Billy Corgan met up, they played their first show together and called themselves the Smashing Pumpkins simply as a joke because they had not thought of a name they liked yet. As they continue the Chicago scene people would recognize them because of their peculiar band name so as they added the final two members to their band they decided to keep the name because of how it seemed to stick in people's heads. "Smashing" is and adjective which means "handsome"	Aaron Glass
Smashing Pumpkins	unlike whate everybody has said, they are called the smashing pumpkins because when Billy Corgan was younger and not even in a band, he told everybody he was in one called the smashing pumpkins. so when he finally got in a band, the people he had told assumed it was called the smashing pumpkins and the name just stuck	sophie
The Smashing Pumpkins	It was a joke that Billy Corgan made up. As a kid, he used to go around telling people he was in a band called the Smashing Pumpkins, even though he wasn't really in a band. As an adult, when he first formed the band with James, the Smashing Pumpkins was the inevitable name.	Jessica
Smashing Pumpkins	Corgan came up with this name, which is derived from the destructiuve Halloween custom of smashing carved pumpkins during Halloween night.	Jon
The Smashing Pumpkins	According to an extremely old interview with Billy Corgan (lead of the Pumpkins) the name was chosen due to the fact that Corgan's home town was famous for its pumpkins. An ex-girlfriend of Corgan's was reported to have said that he would never leave 'this pumpkin town' and thus the name, The Smashing Pumpkins.	rebecca
Smashing Pumpkins	In the last Bozo show, Billy Corgan said that it was just a band name that he made up as a kid. There's no special explanation.	spacegirl
Smashing Pumpkins	As Billy was beginning to make Smashing Pumpkins (He was 19 at the time), he didn't have a name for them. People would ask them what the name of his band was. As a joke he would say "Smashing Pumpkins". Eventually they were introduced as Smashing Pumpkins and the name stuck. Since then the band has described it as God's joke on them and many other things. Note: Smashing is an adjective (think British)	Victor Williams
Smashing Pumpkins	The band says that it was just a joke. "Smashing" wasn't meant to be a verb, it was meant to be a adjective (think British). And the "Pumpkins," really didn't have any significance. It could've been anything.	Irene
Smashing Pumpkins	actually i read in an interview yes, he knew it as a kid. he didnt make it up though. some older friends of his went trick or treating and came to see him and he asked what they were doing, they said 'we are smashing pumpkins" as a joke, but he kept it in his head until he formed the band.	mark p
Smashing Pumpkins	It is believed to be a British expression for "fabulous breasts" (i.e. - Why, what smashing pumpkins she has!).	Brenna
Smile.dk	Veronica and Nina first formed their band as Smile and published their first album Smile in 1998. It received wide attention, especially in Japan. The popular song "Butterfly" was licensed by Konami and featured in the first release of Dance Dance Revolution--a popular dance video game. After the first album, Nina left Smile and started a solo career and Malin replaced Nina in Smile. The band name was also changed from Smile to Smile.dk because they marketing in Denmark.	Below Average Dave (badave.com)
The Smithereens	They got the name from the classic Warner Brothers cartoon character Yosemite Sam - when told Bugs Bunny he was going to "Blow ya to Smithereens!" (The band later used this phrase for a B-sides and rarities compilation!)	BillyG
SmithJones	The bands bass player came up with this name which represents two very common American surnames. This name alludes to the idea that they are of and among common people.	nano
The Smiths	The band picked it because it was, quite simply, the most generic and common name ever. It didn't have any other meaning tied to it, either. (People will probably come up with The Joneses and The Browns next...)	Pink Adder
The Smiths	on the brilliant smiths website IMAET you can read this lines (link: http://www.compsoc.man.ac.uk/~moz/faq/faqtrivi.htm): Many stories and explanations as to how and why abound. Most agree that Morrissey thought up the name, and a popular story is this one : Morrissey thought of three names, "The Smiths", "Smiths Family" and "Smithdom". He asked Johnny Marr to choose; he chose "The Smiths" and the rest is history. As to the meaning: there are tons of references you could choose, like Patti Smith, and others as well-catalogued in Rogan's book. Myra Hindley's family are repeatedly referred to as "The Smiths" in the book Beyond Belief. My personal favourite explanation is that Smith is a very common name here in the UK: it brings with it overtones of mundane average lives, all insurance policies and washing the car on Sundays. The Smiths was all about escaping from this hole of boredom, to reaching a Wildean hedonist appreciation of life. Of course, Morrissey being Morrissey, there's another side to this - maybe it indicates how dull and dreary reality is for him, despite his dreams. This explanation also fits the story detailed above quite well.	Torsten
The Smiths	At the time the Smiths started, there were a lot of bands around with long names fancy names. Morrisey wanted to stand out and be different hence ....The Smiths	Gyrth
The Smiths	This name was taken from the book " Beyond Belief " which chronicles the Moors murders. In this book, Myra Hindley's sister & her husband (David Smith) are referred to throughout as "The Smiths"	Stig O'Hara
The Smiths	The non-fiction book "Beyond Belief" (1960's I think) about the Moors murders contains a chapter entitled "The Smiths" (a family name). I have never heard this cited as the origin of the band name, although it does ties in with the song "Suffer Little Children" and Morrissey's well known early fascination with the subject.	Angus B
Smoosh	They liked the band Smashmouth and wanted to be named Smush, because it sounded like Smash. They didn't know how to spell smush, so they spelled it s-m-o-o-s-h and everyone pronounced it as Smoosh.	Leila Chan
Smoothy and the Hoo-Hoo Smashers	Smoothy had a cue stick in college, you could unscrew this cue in half. The top half was used to hit the bottom half which in turn hit the hoo hoo. The hoo-hoo smasher was Smoothy's weapon of choice	littlepreacherboy
Sneaker Pimps	Named after an employee of the Beastie Boys who's job is to go out, find and buy cool sneakers for them, hence he's a "sneaker pimp"	aphrael
Sneaker Pimps	The Sneaker Pimps took their name from an article the Beastie Boys wrote in Grand Royal magazine about a man that procured vintage athletic footwear for them.	Bobo
Snoop (Doggy) Dogg	When he was a kid, Snoop's mum noticed how he looked like the dog from "Peanuts". She started calling him Snoopy and the name stuck.	Augustus Del Monte
Snoop Dogg	His mom used to call him Snoopy from the comic strip "Peanuts". Snoopy is a dog, so he added dog to it. To be cool, he added another g so it became: Snoop doggy dogg. when snoop got arrested, i forgot for what, he changed it to just snoop dogg. simple.	sup3r_girl
Snoop Doggy Dogg	His mother thought he looked like Snoopy from Peanuts.	Tina
Snoop Doggy Dogg	It comes from "Snoopy", which was his favourite cartoon when he was a kid.	Jay
Snow Patrol	The band was originally named Polar Bear. A friend of Gary Lightbody was talking to him and asked, "How's Snow Patrol?" Lightbody corrected the friend and initially thought nothing of his mistake. Later on the band discovered the Polar Bear name was taken and switched to Snow Patrol.	Martin
So Solid Crew	They thought they were really bad men "solid" and they thought been a crew was cool so they they called themself's the "so solid crew" Loosers!	chaz
Soccer Mommy	The origins picked because there is a mom that plays soccer very well.	Robert D. Arndt, Jr.
Social Distortion	they were desperate for a name, and they thought, (blank) distortion. then one of em shouted out 'social distortion' hense the name.	samanie
Soft Cell	'Soft Cell' is the title of an early chapter in John Brunner's 1968 science fiction novel 'Stand on Zanzibar'. The band takes their name from this book, not the Frank Zappa song.	Donnie Wilcox
Soft Cell	Named after the Frank Zappa song 'Soft Cell Conclusion'	Cokeahollic
Soft Machine	Named after a William S. Burroughs novel. Founding member Daevid Allen had known Burroughs while living in Paris and asked his permission to use the name.	tim gueguen
Soft Machine	From William Burrough's book The Naked Lunch. The Soft Machine is a euphamism for the female form.	tony
Soft Machine	From the book by William S Burroughs.	Old Bill Lee

Entries starting with S are split into multiple pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6

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.