Band names - how did you come up with yours?

[AdamWoodBass]

Hey everyone

So I've been playing with an originals Funk/Fusion type band for a couple of months. It's my absolute privilege to play with these guys as they're some of the most talented musicians I've ever had the chance to play with and this band has almost immediately become the BEST band I've ever played for. Everyone on the same page, everyone equally as passionate about the project and already some really cool material coming out of only a handful of practices. But I digress...

Last night during a coffee break we were talking about band names. We're all the type that will deliberate and lose sleep over the "right" name that sounds cool and not crap. I frustrate myself with it when I think about it as a band name's just a name right? If people listen to your music and enjoy it the name becomes just a label right?

Anyway we have a few "working title" names which we're living with at the moment to see if we like them. My question is two fold:

1) Are you like me and massively over think coming up with a band name or do you just pick something and move on?

2) How did you come up with your band name? Amusing anecdotes welcome!

Cheers

Adam

[grandad]

Unfortunately my pleas wrt band name have by and large been ignored and I've ended up playing in bands with CRAP names. The one exception is the jazz quartet I mostly play with these days, 'The Fox Hollies Set'. This name was derived from Fox Hollies Farm the family home of our female saxophonist.

I think it's important to get the right name that you all feel good about, something that connects.

Edited April 27, 2017 by grandad

[FuNkShUi]

I am like you, and probably overthink it.
Took a lot of time to come up with something we all liked.
Strangely, we thought some of the names were better suited for originals bands, rather than function bands. I didn't even realise that was "a thing".
The one i came up with that i really liked, but was more suited to originals was "All the kings horses".

[PawelG]

All the best band names came up without thinking - very often by a mistake... Good luck with finding something you all like.
Got one for you - Adam Funkadopolis and the Blue Stratos Crew :-)

[Yank]

The right name is important. It has to be in keeping with the style of music, so someone who hasn't heard you has a clue. You knew right away when you first heard of "The Slits" and "The Sex Pistols" that these weren't wedding function bands. You also knew that "The Mellow Tones" weren't someone you wanted to see.

[Adrenochrome]

My main band 'Guilty Pleasures' describes exactly what we play. It was supposed to be a working title only as it's not very original, but it just stuck.
My acoustic project 'Roads' alludes to travelling and different experiences which hints at the breadth of source material we cover (60s pop to melodic death metal). Knowing our singer I think it will have been partly inspired by the film 'The Road'.

[cheddatom]

I was in a punk band once called The Premature Ejaculators. The name just came really quickly

[FinnDave]

We're called the Wirebirds as half the band is from St Helena, and guess what the national bird of that island is??

[Happy Jack]

[quote name='cheddatom' timestamp='1493285081' post='3287096']
I was in a punk band once called The Premature Ejaculators. The name just came really quickly
[/quote]

One of the best genuine LOL moments I've had in ages, complete with funny looks from my work-mates.

[bassjim]

[quote name='cheddatom' timestamp='1493285081' post='3287096']
I was in a punk band once called The Premature Ejaculators. The name just came really quickly
[/quote] !

[cheddatom]

If you'd like to hear more rude jokes and dirty lyrics, you can get the full album here: http://rifffactory.co.uk/PEs.zip

I'm learning to play drums and record at the same time on that. Great band though. 10 gigs in a 9 month period, and then an explosive breakup. Some would say

...we peaked too soon

[MoonBassAlpha]

Did you learn da-dum tish on the drums at the same time?

Charms Against the Evil Eye is a display cabinet in the Pitt-Rivers museum in Oxford, apparently.

[cheddatom]

CreepJoint is an old victorian term for a brothel where the prostitutes rip you off/steal your wallet.

[spike]

Our band is called 360 because the cost of hiring a rehearsal room came to £3.60 each.

[Oopsdabassist]

Blackout...mainly because we used to blackout every time band name discussion came up, could just have easily been Braindeads or Blank Looks I guess!

[PaulWarning]

probably avoid in jokes, might seem funny to the band but would mean bugger all to anybody else, a lot of names would seem crap if suggested but over time they become wonderful, Beatles?
Once chatting to a Bass player, don't know if he's on here, anyway, I asked him the name of his band "ZZ Birmingham" came the reply "Oh" says I "ZZ Top tribute?" "No" he says "we don't do any ZZ Top songs", tickled me no end that did

[ahpook]

Avoid choosing anything you'll have to spell to anyone as odds-on you'll end up trying to explain the spelling during a loud gig.

"What's your band called ?"

"Kyote"

"Coyote ?"

"No, close tho - it's key-o-tee"

"Aaaah, like the city - Kyoto"

"No - Kyote - Kay-why-oh-tee-ee"

etc....

Edited April 27, 2017 by ahpook

[lowhand_mike]

we used a band name generator then adjusted some of them to fit as coming up with something our selves became too involved and over thought
http://www.bandnamemaker.com/
https://www.name-generator.org.uk/band-name/

there are a few to try and they can work to give you a list of possible things

[BigRedX]

IME the best band names have nearly always been thought of by other band members.

From past experience with band names I would make two suggestions when deciding on a name for your band.

1. Don't go for anything with made-up word(s), invariably (and more so in these days of auto-correct) it will get spelt wrongly in publicity and reviews. In the 80s I was in a band whose name was single made up word. Only about half of our print reviews spelt it correctly and almost every time we were on the radio it was mis-pronounced.

2. Have something that is Google-friendly, so that when people search for you on-line your website or Facebook page is easily found.

[Lozz196]

We initially came up with Impact, then found out another band already had that years ago, and were reforming, so a few ideas were traded and Knock Off was decided upon, as it`s like Del Boys gear that he sells. A little bit woo, a little bit wayy.

Only problem is the amount of people who simply can`t get it right. Knocked Off, The Knock Offs, Knock Out. I mean, it`s two words, neither of which would gain much admiration from Countdown viewers.

[Cat Burrito]

The last 2 bands I joined had the name which saved on arguments. I think avoid joke names as invariably the joke wears thin. That said most bands grow into the name. My band CaseHardin took the name from the serial killer lead character in Boston Terrain's book "God Is a Bullet".

[quote name='Lozz196' timestamp='1493299911' post='3287278']Only problem is the amount of people who simply can`t get it right. [/quote]

I think this is a common problem with most bands. We've been Casey Holden, Case Harding etc etc etc

[Osiris]

This isn't my band but years ago I worked on the buildings with an old punk, Biff, who was just starting a new band. In the canteen one day one of the other workers was relaying a tale about something or other and said something about someone being sick on the bus. The site agent, who had a great sense of humour, turned round to Biff and said something along the lines of "you ought to call your band sick on the bus".

[url="http://www.sickonthebus.com"]The rest, as they say, is history[/url].

[bassix]

Walking to practise with the singer thinking of band names and got onto diseases, all the good ones were taken so we ended up with Skurvi. Spelling courtesy of the def leppard school of thought.

[TheRev]

The original incarnation of my band were unashamed Dorset sectarians and were called 'Who's Afear'd', which is the moto of the county of Dorset. The current incarnation has carried on the Dorset theme but with added rough cider to become The Skimmity Hitchers. The name is taken from a scene in 'The Mayor of Casterbirdge' by Thomas Hardy, where he describes the public ridicule (a 'Skimmington' in the Dorset dialect) of two married people who are having an affair. Effigies of the couple are tied to the back of a cart and paraded thorough the village accompanied by 'rough music'. A similar practice was used in Dorset to shame drunkards - they would be piled into a cart and paraded through the village to be ridiculed by the villagers.
The cart was called the Skimington or Skimmity Waggon and the drunks on the Skimmity Waggon were called Skimmity Hitchers.

Essentially we're Dorset drunks playing 'rough' music....

[url="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charivari"]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charivari[/url]

[davegriffiths91]

When I joined the band I play in now we were called "Baba Yaga" which is apparently an old witch from an eastern European folk tales.
Unfortunately we lost our singer to ill health and so had to change our name. I was watching"Spririted Away" a Studio Ghibli film which has a witch character called "Yubaba"
I put this to the band and they liked it so it stuck!