Artist List

Naming a band is a difficult job. You have to come up with something that’s memorable, fits on the side of a CD, and hasn’t been used by someone who came before you in the over 50 years of rock music history. To quote my favorite rock movie of all time, This is Spinal Tap, there’s a fine line between clever and stupid, and many bands have crossed the International Date Line, especially in my favorite genre: punk. The Dead Kennedys is an edgy, clever name; Scraping Foetus Off The Wheel is just plain stupid.

So how can you go about naming a band? Playing Mad Libs is one method; my family came up with the phrase Electric Blue Koala Bear Bowtie, and now we’re trying to come with some songs that match the phrase. Listening to little kids is another way; my 5 year old recently told my cousin who’s a songwriter, “Igor went back to Malaysia.” That sentence is true in itself—a friend of ours named Igor did return to his home country recently—but my cousin thought it would make a great name for a band. Ripping off book titles (which are not covered under copyright protection) is another way—I have a book on my nightstand right now called The Night Climbers and I think that would make a terrific band name.

Here are some real band names and how they were derived:

Fountains of Wayne, out of Montclair, New Jersey, got their name from a local garden statuary store. If you’re ever in the area at Christmastime, it’s worth visiting because they supposedly have the largest indoor lights display in New Jersey.

The Bay City Rollers picked the name “The Rollers,” decided they needed to add something to it, and threw a dart at a map, which is how a bunch of guys from Scotland ended up named after a small city in Michigan.

Duran Duran got their name from a character in the movie Barbarella (shortened from Durand Durand).

The Psychedelic Furs were named because their leader, Richard Butler, was bloody-minded and tried to come up with a couple of words that would be the most unfashionable things possible at the time (the late 70’s).

Wilco named themselves after the CB radio shorthand for “I will comply.”

What are your favorite band names, real or made up?