Secret for picking a band name.

[ardgedee]

The name "Death Cab for Cutie" came from a song on the Beatles movie 'Magical Mystery Tour."

Then there's the classic 80s/90s indie band formula of putting three unrelated words together: Neutral Milk Hotel, Stone Temple Pilots, Toad the Wet Sprocket, Vigilantes Of Love, etc.

Death Cab for Cutie was a Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band song and Toad the Wet Sprocket was a band name in a Monty Python routine. Though since they all worked with each other and were in The Beatles' orbit so it's not that much of a reach.

I like the band Placebo's name, it was intended as a riff on the trend at the time for alt-rock bands to name themselves after drugs (Morphine, Codeine, etc.).

The story I read about the name for the Violent Femmes was that they kept getting kicked out of clubs, so they would randomly change their name to get rebooked, and "Violent Femmes" happened to be their billing the night they were spotted by a label rep.

 

[brianrost]

The old standby, cities, towns, states, countries:

Chicago
Berlin
Kansas
Detroit
Flint
America


Name your band after someone who's not in the band:

Lynyrd Skynyrd
Marshall Tucker Band
H.P. Lovecraft

Name your band after drugs or drug paraphenalia:

Jefferson Airplane
Bongwater
Doobie Brothers
Bamboo

 

[getrhythm]

Like I'm going to tell you the band naming secret.
That's THEE hardest part of starting a band!
Good luck to you my friend!

 

[Bunk McNulty]

Hmmm. Names of bands I have been in (that I still remember):
Zeet (a favorite: "It' so neat, and discreet--Zeet" R. Crumb, etc.)
BarnSmell
MoTwang
Elvet Velvis
Gas House Mouse
Ragged Right
Ground Zero
The Angry Commuters
Mystery Dates
The Pariahs (high school!)

 

[dan1952]

I once had a band called 3FI (after groups started going by U2, NWA, etc.. It could stand for 3 From Indiana, 3 Former Inmates, 3 Future Invalids, etc., but most folks would yell, "3 %×#&!^@ Idiots!"
Best band name of any I've had! LOL!

 

[Thumpin6string]

I'm hoping to get a band together called The Crippled Old Farts.

 

[51PRI]

My buddy and i just started a new project, and we are having a terrible time trying to come up with any type of name. Any suggestions or secrets when it comes to naming your new projects.

At one time here there were (at least) three bands in the regional area here with the name "Mid-Life Crisis" so, just use that. It seems popular!

 

[Bringindafunk]

I always recommend running whatever you do come up with through Urban Dictionary to make sure the name doesn't have alternate meanings. The current band I'm in did that for a few potentials and the dictionary's suggestion algorithm actually lead us to our the name we ended up using so that can also be helpful.

 

[JazznFunk]

I like band names that don't actively describe exactly what kind of music is being played. I mean, if you're the 'Preservation Hall Jazz Band', you've defined yourself pretty well. Even 'Metallica' is pretty specific. 'Rush', 'Chicago', 'The Beatles'.... no description whatsoever. Just know that if you go with a band name that is remotely 'jokey' in anyway, there's a fine line between being taken seriously vs not when it comes to booking.

One of my past jazz trios was called 'Done For The Evening' because I thought it was funny to get up on stage before the first song and say 'Thanks everyone.... we're Done For The Evening.' It actually became a pretty recognizable name for the group and no one really got the 'joke' per-se. My current jazz trio is called 'Up Jumped Three' - which doesn't necessarily define exactly what we play but has a positive energy to the name - and people in general dig it, but it's been butchered as 'Up Jump Tree', 'Up Jump Three', and worse, 'Up Chucked Three'.

Just accept that whatever you pick, someone will find a way to screw it up out of an inability to read, listen, or pay attention to details.

 

[Mike Anderson]

My first band, we got drunk, distributed bits of note paper, and wrote 2 of our ideas on them. Put them in a hat and did a random draw. The winner: Stool Of Office, which was found by one of the guys in a dictionary of archaic English. Runner-up, which I liked, was Love Boys of Olduvai Gorge. Later, we became PMRC, which was the first initials of the four of us. For those who don't know the reference: Parents Music Resource Center - Wikipedia. My God we were clever.

 

[Mannyinnewyork]

A long time ago I played with a Taiwanese group. We rehearsed for a show but due to scheduling etc. our rehearsal time was limited. They needed a name for group - I suggested The Unprepared. So we went with it. It is tough to see in the photo but behind us is a large screen that has the name on it. Weird times.
If we were doing this again I'd change the name to Better Than Expected.

 

[HardNHeavy]

always liked "Flesh-Pie" for a punk band lol

so true, it is really hard to think up a name. Soooo many ideas make ya head spin, almost as hard as writing original music sometimes..It could take months to come up with something. Choose a good one, and whatever ya do make sure you copyright it. Having had this issue in the past myself after releasing an LP.

here's a cpl links to get ya started

band name generator <----

 

[A Bass And Its Boy]

Yep. Habitual denizens of the Grog and Tankard. My girlfriend at the time was backing up Root Boy Slim’s band.

Yeah, I gigged with them there—I was in Mobia’s Trip. Fun guys. I still hum “Rancho Apocalypto” to myself from time to time.

 

[And I]

I can tell you how to weed out the bad ones... picture yourself on stage in front of a packed house saying "thanks for coming out, we're <band name>!" If you're embarassed, it's a bad name...

 

[MegaSwing]

I generally prefer objects or simple nouns, as opposed to concepts or states of being.

 

[Gorilla Monsoon]

Yeah, I gigged with them there—I was in Mobia’s Trip. Fun guys. I still hum “Rancho Apocalypto” to myself from time to time.

I loveded the Grog. Been so long I can’t remember the guys name who was running it, but I rarely paid for drinks. He was a carefree guy, I think his father owned the place. Obscure acts, but Root Boy Slim would play there, and I knew the guitar player and my squeeze at the time was singing backup. Crazy good times...

 

[swink]

go for contradictions.... like Blank Chessboard, Pale rainbow, Green Snowflake, Burning fridge, ..... Updated oblivion....

 

[gln1955]

There are poor choices. Our BL came from out west where he had a band with a name that had a strong historical significance to folks in the Rocky Mountain realm. We're using the same name here and nobody gets the reference and I've had to explain the name to everyone.

 

[Neil Folkard]

'Our Notes Are Better Than Your Notes'.

 

[Low Key]

I filter ideas by the ease finding the band on the web.

I go to a domain name source (NameCheap.com, GoDaddy.com, etc.) and make sure the name is available. If you want your band name to be the Purple Frog Jam and you're in the US, make sure PurpleFrogJam.com is available. Even if you don't want to build a website, you can grab that for future use or maybe just have that domain name redirect to your Facebook page or equivalent.

When fans have to add terms like "music", "band" or city name to your get to your band website ([BandName]RocksAtlanta.com), it's going to make it a lot harder to find.

And while I'm on the topic, I find numbers easy to confuse. If The Too Misfits is the name of your duet, with a play on words, people will be typing in "too", "two", "2", etc.

I try to keep it easy, memorable and easy to type right into a browser address line. I realize that isn't the most creative thing to say, but it's really easy to tell people to go to [YourBandName].com.

(And yes, the two aforementioned band names were made up on the fly. I'm not sure if those names are of real bands. )