Here's a compiled list of bands and how they got their names.
If you know the origin of a band that's not listed here,
have a link to a band's page and want me to add it,
or find an error in the information, EMAIL ME.

2 LIVE JEWS - Parody of the Florida rap band 2 LIVE CREW.

7 YEAR BITCH - A twist on the movie "The 7 Year Itch".

10cc - The average man ejaculates around 9cc of sperm. The members of 10cc decided they were a bit more macho than the rest of us.

24-7 SPYS - They were looking (spying) for sex 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

60 FT. DOLLS - One night the trio was hanging out in a bar chatting with a friend who collected toys from the '60s. The singer later dreamed that an alien who told him to name the band 60 Ft. Dolls.

88 FINGERS LOUIE - 88 Fingers Louie was a piano thief that sold Fred a hot piano in an episode of The Flinstones.

311 - 311 is the police code for indecent exposure. The police arrested one of the band members for skinny-dipping when he was 16. They cuffed him and took him (still naked) to his parent's house. The other band members thought this was hilarious and the band had its name. There is a persistent rumor that their name is derived from KKK. K being the 11th letter in the alphabet.

764-HERO - Signs along the highway in the Seattle area say, "Littering is against the Law, report violators (360)764-hero."

808 STATE - Named after the Roland TR 808 drum machine.

1000 HOMO DJ'S - Al Jourgeson and some friends were listening to an unauthorized remix of a REVOLTING COCKS song. Jim Nash of Wax Trax records reassured Al that the only people that would hear the remix are 1000 Homo DJ's.

10,000 MANIACS - Inspired by an old horror movie called "2000 Maniacs".

A CERTAIN RATIO - A line in a Brian Eno song (On Taking Tiger Mountain by Strategy).

A&M RECORDS - This huge record label was started by Herb Alpert and Jerry Moss. Their initials made the name.

ABBA - Abba is "father" in Hebrew. It's also an acronym for the first names of the band members: Agnetha Fältskog, Björn Ulvaeus, Benny Anderson and Anni-Frid (Frida) Lyngstad.

AC/DC - A band member saw AC/DC on a vacuum cleaner and figured it has something to do with power. He was right, it means "Alternating Current / Direct Current". The band didn't realize it was also slang for bi-sexual, which caused a few awkward moments in their early days. A silly rumor claims the acronym "Anti-Christ Devil's Children".

ACE OF BASE - Their original studio was in the basement of a car repair shop, leading to "base" and they were masters of their own studio, so it was "ace of base".

AEROSMITH - It was evidently a word Joey Kramer wrote all over his notebooks in high school. Some think they were inspired by the 1925 book "Arrowsmith" by Sinclair Lewis.

AGENT ORANGE - Double meaning. They were from Orange County, California and AGENT ORANGE is a famous dioxin-based "defoliant" used by the US military in the Vietnam War.

AGGRESSION - Describes the sound of this hardcore band from the early 80's very well.

AGGRAVATED ASSAULT - Considering that this is a skinhead band on Resistance Records, Aggravated Assault is probably an appropriate name.

AIR SUPPLY - Graham Russell saw the name on a marquee in a dream 5 years before the band was signed.

ALAN'S FEAR - This old Arizona band tried to get a Christian friend named Alan to play drums. He was too afraid of punk.

ALICE IN CHAINS - A masochistic parody of Alice in Wonderland. The original idea (which evidently never happened) was they would do Slayer covers wearing dresses.

AMBOY DUKES - After a great 1942 pulp novel about Brooklyn Street gangs written by Irving Shulman. TED NUGENT was in this band before going solo.

TORI AMOS - Her real name is Myra Ellen Amos. A friend suggested that Tori sounded better.

THE ANDRIOD SISTERS - A mutation of the Andrews Sisters. The band features strange female vocals and electronics.

ANTIETAM - A Civil War battle.

ANTHRAX - A virulent bacteria that used to infect many cattle in Europe.

ARCHERS OF LOAF - It basically means nothing, but they make up things to fool people.

ARHOOLIE - This great archival record label took its name from "Hoolie" which is slang for "field hollar" (work songs sang by field workers).

ARMY OF GOD - Named after some militant Christians responsible for kidnapping a couple of abortion providers in the 80's, and now suspected in various bombings in Atlanta. The band flirted with satanic imagery, sucked each other’s blood on stage, and generally tried to shock audiences.

ART OF NOISE - Named after the 1913 manifesto called "The Art of Noises" by Italian Futurist Luigi Russolo. Russolo made noise machines, wrote music for them, and also recorded sounds from the environment for musical pleasure.

ASWAD - Means, "Black" in Arabic.

B-52's - The beehive hairstyle popular in the 1950's was called a B-52. B52's are also a type of US Air Force bomber.

BAADER MEINHOF - Named after the Baader-Meinhof Gang, a German terrorist group from the 70's intertwined with the RAF and SPK.

BABES IN TOYLAND - the name of a 1934 movie starring Laural and Hardy. A 1961 Disney musical featuring Annette Funicello and a stage production.

BACHMAN-TURNER OVERDRIVE - A combination of band members' last names and the trucker's magazine "Overdrive". They were originally called BRAVE BELT, then BACHMAN-TURNER, and then the final name.

BACKSTREET BOYS - Named after a flea market in Orlando Florida.

BAD COMPANY - A 1972 movie by Jeff Bridges.

BAD ENGLISH - they used to play pool and were bad at "putting English" (spin) on the ball.

BADFINGER - The working title of the BEATLES song "A Little Help From My Friends".

BAND OF SUSANS - Three members of the band were named Susan.

THE BANGLES - They wanted to be the BANGS, but there was already a band using that name.

BARE NAKED LADIES - It is supposed to be sexual, but somewhat innocent, as in a child seeing a bare naked lady for the first time. They thought it up while bored at a Dylan concert. The name gets people's attention too.

BAUHAUS - Named after the style of graphic design and famous school of architecture.

BAY CITY ROLLERS - They blindly stuck a pin on a map. It landed on Bay City, Michigan.

BEASTIE BOYS - "Beastie" is an acronym for "Boys Entering Anarchistic States Toward Internal Excellence".

THE BEATLES - A few stories floating around about this one. Stuart Sutcliffe came up with THE BEETLES in 1960, which was evidently a play on Buddy Holly's CRICKETS. They went by THE QUARRYMEN and THE SILVER BEETLES awhile later, then shortened and mutated that to THE BEATLES. Lennon and Sutcliffe may have also been influenced by the film "The Wild One", which featured a motorcycle gang called the Beetles. John Lennon is generally credited with combining Beetles and Beat to come up with THE BEATLES spelling. Lennon was also fond of saying he had a vision as a child of a flaming pie in the sky that said, "You are Beatles with an "A".

THE BEE GEES - Their name was not derived from "Brothers Gibb". Two friends that helped them out early on were Bill Goode and Bill Gates (not THAT Bill Gates, this was some disc jockey).

BELLE & SEBASTIAN - This band from Glasgow, Scotland named themselves after a children's cartoon on French TV.

BEN FOLDS FIVE - The keyboard player is Ben Fold. They are a trio, but liked the sound of BEN FOLDS FIVE. Also, they were told they made enough noise for 5 people.

BERSERKR - Named after the Berserkers, a feared group of ancient Norse warriors who wore bearskins, ate hallucinogenic mushrooms and charged into battle with psychotic ferocity.

BETTER THAN EZRA - Two rumors: 1- they followed a band called EZRA and thought they were better. 2- the lead singer was mad about not getting into Cornell University. Ezra is the first name of a Cornell founder.

BETTIE SERVEERT - This Dutch band is named after Bettie Stove, a Dutch tennis star of the 70's. Bettie Serveert means "Bettie serves".

BIG STAR - The name of a supermarket chain in the Southern United States.

BIKINI KILL - Lois Maffeo and Rebecca Gates (of the Spinanes) did a one-time performance in gorilla suites and called it BIKINI KILL. Toby Vail called one of them and asked if she could use the name.

BIRTHDAY PARTY - The name of a play by Harold Pinter. Nick Cave was the singer for this band until they broke up in the early 80's.

BLACK CROWES - Originally named "Uncle Crowe's Garden" after a children's fairy tale.

BLACK FAG - Parody of the band name "Black Flag".

BLACK FLAG - The flag flown by pirates and the brand name of a bug killer. When ADAM ANT first played in California, BLACK FLAG gave out buttons that read: "Black Flag kills Ants".

BLACK METAL - This extreme Nordic style of Heavy Metal took its name from VENOM's second album "Black Metal" released in 1982.

BLACK SABBATH - Named after a 1963 horror movie starring Boris Karloff. Some members were in a band called EARTH before changing their name to BLACK SABBATH.

BLACK VELVET FLAG - Parody of the band name BLACK FLAG.

BLACK UHURU - Uhuru is Swahili for freedom, so the name means "Black Freedom".

BLINK 182 - They were originally called BLINK, but were forced to change their name because a techno band in Ireland was already called that. 182 are how many times Al Pacino said, "fuck" in the movie Scarface.

THE BLOODHOUND GANG - A skit on the "3210 Contact" TV show.

BLUE CHEER - 60's nickname for high-quality LSD.

BLUE MEANIES - This Chicago band is named after characters in the BEATLES' "Yellow Submarine" cartoon.

BLUE MOON BOYS - This Rockabilly band from Indiana named themselves after the first band Elvis put together.

BLUE OYSTER CULT - A combination of a recipe the band's manager read in a book and the band's fascination with the occult. The name is also an anagram of Cully's Stout Beer.

BLUES TRAVELER - They were inspired by Gozer the Traveler in Ghostbusters 1.

BLUR - The band was originally called "Seymour", but a condition of their record deal was they had to pick a new name from a list that the label supplied. "Blur" was on the list.

THE BOBS - Dog and Cat show jargon for "Best of Breed".

BODY COUNT - Ice T was inspired by Sunday night news broadcasts in Los Angeles. The week's tally of dead from gang activities would always be mentioned right before sports.

BONGWATER - Water only fools would drink.

BON JOVI - A mutation of Jon Bon Jovi's real name: John Bongiovi, Jr.

BONO VOX - (the singer of U2) Paul Hewson was inspired by a hearing aid store in Dublin, Ireland with the same name. BONO VOX means "good voice" in Latin.

BOOKER T. & THE M.G.'S - Booker T. led the band and M.G. stands for Memphis Group.

BOOMTOWN RATS - From a gang in Woody Guthrie's "Bound for Glory".

DAVID BOWIE - He took his last name from the Bowie Knife (which he adored as a young lad). He didn't go by his given name "David Jones" because he didn't want to be confused with Davy Jones of the Monkees.

BR5-49 - This fun band out of Nashville took their name from the phone number Junior Samples always said in his used car salesman sketch on the Hee-Haw TV show.

BRANIAC - Superman's archenemy.

BRATMOBILE - A twist on Batman and Robin's Batmobile.

BREAD - Slang for money, an improvement over their first name PLEASURE FAIRE.

BREEDERS - Homosexual slang for heterosexuals.

BUCKCHERRY - The name of a transvestite that used to hang out outside a club they played at. The transvestite liked to flick lit cigarettes at them.

BURZUM - It means "More Darkness" in a fictitious language JRR Tolkien made up for the LORD OF THE RINGS trilogy. This Black Metal band is inactive because the founder is in prison for killing Euronymous of the band MAYHEM.

BUSH - Named after a neighborhood in London called "Sheperd's Bush".

BUZZCOCKS - British slang for vibrators (sex toys, you know).

BYRDS - They were originally called the BEEFEATERS. A British group called THE BIRDS emerged at the same time, but faded away.

CABARET VOLTAIRE - Named after the famous dada cafe/performance space in Zurich.

CAFE TACUBA - This fun band from the suburbs of Mexico City named themselves after a restaurant called CAFE TACUBA open in downtown Mexico City since the early 1900's. HEATHEN WORLD likes these guys and recommends their "Re" CD on WEA/Latina.

CALVARY - This Black Metal band's name is Greek for GOLGOTHA.

CAPTAIN BEEFHEART - Inspired by a strange Uncle of Don Van Vliet's who would expose himself, squeeze his dick until the head turned purple, then comment about it looking "like a big ole' beef heart".

WENDY/WALTER CARLOS - Walter Carlos had a huge hit with "Switched on Bach", then switched to Wendy Carlos after getting a sex change operation.

CASSANDRA COMPLEX - Is a reference to Greek mythology; Cassandra had the gift of prophecy with the curse of no one ever believing her.

CBGB'S - "Country, Bluegrass, Blues" (the bar was there long before punk).

RAY CHARLES - His real name is Ray Charles Robinson, but he wanted no confusion with boxer Sugar Ray Robinson. Ray Charles didn't go blind until 7 years old, and would ride his bicycle around his hometown AFTER going blind.

CES JACUZZI AND THE SLUMLORDS - In reference to a crappy Los Angeles apartment complex the band used to live in. The advertised Jacuzzi was actually more like a cesspool.

CHAKA KHAN - Yvette Stevens' African name, Chaka, means "fire".

CHEAP TRICK - They asked an Ouiji Board what they should call their band.

CHEETAH CHROME MOTHERFUCKERS - Inspired by Cheetah Chrome of the DEAD BOYS.

CHEMICAL BROTHERS - They were originally named "The Dust Brothers" after the famous American producers until the real Dust Brothers caught wind of this. "Chemical Brothers" was derived from a song of theirs called "Chemical Beat", which was allegedly inspired by all the drugs in the clubs they played.

CHERRY POPPIN DADDIES - Their first song "Cherry Poppin Daddy Strut" was inspired by a lyric from an old jazz song...they thought the band would last for about 1 gig and decided on the name while drunk. They were originally a punk band called the JAZZ GREATS (they sucked at their instruments back then).

CHICAGO - Their first album was released as "Chicago Transit Authority", and then the city of Chicago sued them. Chicago Transit Authority is the name of Chicago's public transportation department.

CHUBBY CHECKER - Dick Clark's wife thought up the name as a take off on Fats Domino.

CHUMBAWAMBA - Based on a band member's dream. He didn't know which door to use in a public toilet because the signs said "Chumba" and "Wamba" instead of "Men" and "Women".

CINDERELLA - Named after a porn movie and deliberately chosen for its utter lack of heavy-metal connotations.

CIRCLE JERKS - A group of losers in a circle masturbating. Their "Wild in The Streets" album was named after a classic 1960's movie.

THE CLASH - Taken from a newspaper headline describing "A Clash With Police".

CMX - A mutated abbreviation from Cloaca MaXima (the great arsehole), which was the main sewer system in ancient Rome. Band members have also claimed that CMX stood for "Cosmic Mental Xplosion" or "CliMaX" just to have some fun with the issue. CMX is a Finnish band with a great reputation.

COCTEAU TWINS - They were named after an old Simple Minds song first called "Cocteau Twins", and then renamed to "No Cure". All this was inspired by a set of twins that spoke a language they created that sounded like gibberish to everyone else.

COCK ROBIN - From Disney's Who Killed Cock Robin?

COLLECTIVE SOUL - A phrase in "The Fountainhead", by Ayn Rand.

COMMODORES - Chosen at random from a dictionary. It's an old US Navy rank now referred to as Commodore Admiral.

COMSAT ANGELS - Named after a communications satellite. They went by CS Angels in the US for legal reasons.

CONCRETE BLONDE - Suggested by REM's Michael Stipe.

ALICE COOPER - They were inspired by talking to a spirit named Alice Cooper using their Ouija Board. The singer hogged the name and went solo. He is (ironically) now a Christian family man and owner of a sports bar in Phoenix, Arizona.

ELVIS COSTELLO - His Great Grandmother's last name was Costello and his father performed as DAY COSTELLO. ELVIS updated the COSTELLO name and ran with it. His real last name is MacManus.

COUNTING CROWS - When Duritz and Bryson first performed as an acoustic duo they call themselves Counting Crows after an English divination rhyme. "...if you hang on to the flimsiness of anything, you might as well be standing there, counting crows..."

WAYNE/JAYNE COUNTY - WAYNE COUNTY and his band THE ELECTRIC CHAIRS were a hit in the New York punk scene in the late 70's. After a sex change operation he/she emerged as JAYNE COUNTY.

COVEN - A coven is a group of witches. Their first album was called "Witchcraft- Destroys Minds and Reaps Souls". One side was a dramatization of a black mass. "One Tin Soldier" has somewhat eerie lyrics when you pay attention to them as well.

CRACKER - Derogatory slang for white people.

CRACK THE SKY - They noticed a crack in the sky while driving through a rainstorm outside New York.

CRASH WORSHIP - Evel Knieval evidently coined the phrase to explain the behavior of people who love to watch daredevils crash.

CRANBERRIES - The name started as "Cranberries Saw Us" (a stupid play off of "Cranberry Sauce"). When Dolores O'Riordan joined, she recommended shortening the name.

CRASS - Summed up their opinion of the culture and governments around them. The "A" looked nifty turned into an anarchy sign as well. They released one single as Creative Recordings And Sound Services.

CREAM - These three good, but egotistic musicians considered themselves the "Cream of the crop".

CREED - The last name of the family in Stephen King's Pet Cemetery.

CREEDANCE CLEARWATER REVIVAL - Name inspired by a logo on Olympia beer cans. Their first label called them the GOLLIWOGS (without the band's permission).

THE CURE - They were originally called THE EASY CURE.

CURRENT 93 - A term used by Aliester Crowley, who was a powerful psychic explorer, magician, and prolific author. Crowley's philosophy has influenced many musicians including Jimmy Page (who owns one of Crowley's former homes), Ozzy Osbourne and Daryl Hall of Hall and Oats.

DADA - Named after the wacky and brilliant Dada art movement.

DANZIG - Glenn Danzig.

DASH RIP ROCK - This zany Louisiana band was named after one of Ellie Maye's boyfriends in the Beverly Hillbillies.

DAVE MATTHEWS BAND - A couple similar stories: 1- a club owner mistakenly announced them as THE DAVE MATTHEWS BAND and popularity made it hard to change the name later 2- a printer shortened "Dave Matthews and his band" to DAVE MATTHEWS BAND for an announcement. The band was going to think of a new name but never got around to it.

DAY-GLO ABORTIONS - They used to be called the SICK FUCKS until hearing about GG ALLIN'S band with the same name. A promoter gave them an entire case of "Day-Glo" brand spray paint to promote their next show with. The band decided their name would be DAY GLO + "whatever word was used the most in tomorrow's paper". The next day's paper had a huge story about a prominent doctor caught performing ABORTIONS. The rest is history.

DEAD CAN DANCE - Inspired by the idea of making "animacy out of inanimacy". Such as making lively music out of the dead wood of instruments.

DEATH IN JUNE - Named after a night in June when Hitler ordered the execution of Ernst Roehm, leader of the Nazi Brown Shirts. Roehm was one of Hitler's earliest supporters, but Hitler became annoyed by his open homosexuality and demands of more money for the Brown Shirts.

DEEP BLUE SOMETHING - Their original name LEPER MESSIAH attracted a heavy metal crowd, and the new name came out of a suggestion of a name "Deep Blue...something".

DEEP PURPLE - Ritchie Blackmore's grandmother liked the BING CROSBY's song "Deep Purple".

DEF LEPPARD - Inspired by a drawing Joe Elliot made of a Leopard with no ears, a "Deaf Leopard".

DEICIDE - The name means "death of God".

DEPECHE MODE - It roughly translates to "Fashion News", which was evidently the name of a fashion magazine.

DEVO - Short for "de-evolution", which the bands thinks the human race is experiencing.

D.I. - The band's publishing rights are under "Damned Immature". Many fans prefer "Doggy Intercourse". "Drunken Injuns" was another band.

DICKIES - Named after the luckily now obsolete fashion item.

DIG DUG - Named after the underground smash arcade hit, they were almost named Pole Position.

DIE KREUZEN - Slight modification of "Die Kreuze", which is "The Crosses" in German.

DIE TOTEN HOSEN - German for "dead trousers". This is German slang for either a lazy bastard, out of style or VERY bad in bed.

DIMMU BORGIR - This Norwegian black metal band's name means "dark castle" in Icelandic. There is a mountain in Iceland called DIMMU BORGIR.

DINOSAUR JR. - They were DINOSAUR, but Robert Hunter, the lyricist for the GRATEFUL DEAD, already had a band called DINOSAUR.

DION AND THE BELMONTS - The BELMONTS named themselves after a street in their hometown, the Bronx.

DIRE STRAITS - It describes the financial situation they were in when forming the band.

DISHWALLA - A term for people who sell satellite dishes on the black market in India.

DJUR DJURA - This amazing singer and group of musicians are named after Mount Djurdjura near the singer's birthplace in Algeria.

DMX - This rapper says DM is short for "Dark Man". Safe assumption is that X is inspired by Malcolm X.

DOA - Dead On Arrival.

THOMAS DOLBY - His real name is Thomas Morgan Robertson. Dolby Labs (who make Dolby Noise Reduction) sued him and now he has to always use THOMAS when he uses DOLBY.

DOOBIE BROTHERS - Doobie is slang for marijuana joint. Their first name was PUD (no kidding!).

DOORS - From a William Blake quote "If the doors of perception were to be cleansed every thing would appear to man as it is, infinite". Aldus Huxley's novel "The Doors of Perception" was probably also inspired by the same quote. THE DOORS were originally the PSYCHEDELIC RANGERS.

DOPPELGANGER - Inspired by a CURVE record called "Doppelganger". The German word roughly translates to "alter-ego" or "body double".

DR. DRE - He was inspired by the basketball star Dr. Jay.

DRAIN S.T.H. - This Swedish band was DRAIN until realizing there was already a DRAIN in the USA. STH stands for "Stockholm International Airport". "Slam Those Heinekens" and "Straight To Hell" are fun, but wrong.

DREAM THEATER - They had to drop their original name "Majesty" due to copyright problems and named themselves after a theater in their LA neighborhood.

DREAM SYNDICATE - Named indirectly after an avant-garde combo that includes Lamonte Young and John Cale.

D.R.I. - "Dirty Rotten Imbeciles". This fast as hell punk band has been alive and kicking since about 1981.

DURAN DURAN - A villain in the 1967 movie "Barbarella".

DURUTTI COLUMN - A Spanish Civil War brigade led by libertarian anarchist Buenaventura Durruti.

BOB DYLAN - His real name Robert Zimmerman was too long and he was a big fan of Dylan Thomas.

THE EAGLES - Their first name was TEEN KING AND THE EMERGENCIES. There are a couple stories past that 1- they were inspired by the BYRDS, who were a big influence. 2- they all wanted an American sounding name, Henley wanted something Native American and Frey just wanted a kick-ass band name.

ECHO AND THE BUNNYMEN - Echo was tthe brand of drum machine used in their early demos.

ED GEIN'S CAR - Named after the famous serial killer/cannibal farmer from Wisconsin. Ed Gein's car was on display at Wisconsin State Fairs for a few years in the 50's after he was caught.

EINSTURZENDE NEUBAUTEN - Translates to "collapsing new buildings".

EL DUCE - This lovably offensive wino drummer for THE MENTORS borrowed Mussolini's nickname. Both EL DUCEs are now dead.

ELECTRIC HELLFIRE CLUB - There were a few "Hellfire Clubs" throughout history. They were decadent, blasphemous social clubs intent on amusing themselves and scandalizing everyone else.

ELTON JOHN - His real name is Reginald Dwight. He took the stage name from two other British musicians, Elton Dean and John Baldry.

ELVÉZ - He claims to be the Mexican Elvis. He steals Elvis songs and changes the lyrics into Latino topics, dresses like Elvis, etc. ELVÉZ is very entertaining live.

ELVIS AND THE SHITHEADS - I don't know how this name came about. Probably cause their music sucks.

ELVIS HITLER - Same idea as Marilyn Manson. Combine two famous people with very different reputations for shock value.

EPMD - Acronym for "Eric and Parish Making Dollars".

ERNIE'S RUBBER DUCKIE - Inspired by the Sesame Street character Ernie.

EMF - Acronym for "Epsom Mad Funkers". The rumored "Ecstasy Mother Fuckers" is funny, but wrong.

EPITAPH RECORDS - Epitaph fit the tombstone logo used on the first BAD RELIGION ep.

EPPERLEY - They were the BUGS until copyright problems prompted a name change. EPPERLEY is a friend's last name (his father is a classical composer).

EPPU NORMAALI - This Finnish band was inspired by a scene in Mel Brooks' Young Frankenstein. Igor steals a brain for Frankenstein's creature labeled "Abnormal". Igor thought the guy's name was "Abbey Normal". "Eppu Normaali" is Abbey Normal translated into Finnish.

EURYTHMICS - A system of music instruction from the 1890s that emphasizes physical response.

EVE 6 - An episode of X-Files featured 10 clones of a girl named Eve. The 6th clone was a crazy psycho, hence EVE 6.

EVERCLEAR - Named after the "Everclear" brand of 190 proof grain alcohol.

EVERYTHING BUT THE GIRL - Inspired by an advertisement for a British clothing store that would sell you "Everything but the Girl". The implication was that everything was for sale except the sales girl.

EVE'S PLUMB - One of the band members was a friend of Eve Plumb, who played Jan on THE BRADY BUNCH.

EXTREME - They were originally DREAM, but someone was using the name. While thinking of something like ex-Dream, EXTREME came up.

EYELESS IN GAZA - An Aldous Huxley Novel. Also, Samson's eyes were burned out when he was held captive in Gaza in the legend of Samson and Delhia.

FAITH NO MORE - The band was originally called SHARP YOUNG MEN, but changed to FAITH NO MAN when their front man was Mike "The Man" Morris. Mike "The Man" left in 1982, so they evolved into FAITH NO MORE.

FALCO - Named after East German ski jumper Falko Weissflogg.

THE FALL - A novel by Albert Camus.

FANNY - The band claims the name referred to a woman's spirit, but their records usually showed the women in butt accentuating tight bell-bottom pants.

PERRY FARREL - His real name is Perry Bernstein and his brother's name is Farrel Bernstein. Hence, PERRY FARREL (he's the front man for JANE'S ADDICTION and PORNO FOR PYROS). Note: a book in the early 90's incorrectly stated his real name as Simon Bernstein.

FASTBALL - The name of their favorite porn flick.

FASTER PUSSYCAT - After the Russ Meyer movie "Faster Pussycat Kill! Kill!".

FAT TUESDAY - The day before Ash Wednesday, which is the last day of Mardi Gras. It's usually a paid holiday for workers in New Orleans.

FIELDS OF THE NEPHILIM - A mythological Hell (aren't they all?) Or is Hell real?

FIG DISH - This Chicago band was inspired by the German phrase Fich Dich, which basically means Fuck You.

FINE YOUNG CANNIBALS - Inspired by the movie "All The Fine Young Cannibals".

FLAMING LIPS - Hot peppermint candy lips.

FLEETWOOD MAC - Slight modification of Mick Fleetwood's name with the "Mac" coming from John McVie.

FLIPPER - After the happy television dolphin.

FOO FIGHTERS - World War II slang for UFOs. "Foo" is a mutation either the French word "feu" (which means "fire") or "fou" (which means "insane"). Some say it was a hush-hush group of Air force pilots who tried to shoot down UFOs.

FOREIGNER - British guitarist Mick Jones started the band in New York. Since he was a foreigner that became the name.

FOUNTAINS OF WAYNE - The name of a store in Wayne, New Jersey that sells fountains.

FREE BEER - Fliers for their shows were sure to grab people's attention.

FUDGE TUNNEL - Slang for anal cavity.

FUGAZI - A bunch of similar rumors: Italian slang for "Fucked Up" used by various WWII armies, Vietnam War slang meaning "fucked up", Vietnam War acronym for "Fucked Up, Got in an Ambush and Zipped In".

FUGEES - Three band members' parents were refugees. Their label is called Refugee Camp.

THE FUGS - When Norman Mailer first published "The Naked and the Dead" in the US he had to replace all the "fucks" with "fugs".

GALAXIE 500 - The cool car from the 1960's.

GANG OF FOUR - Group of old-style Chinese rulers who all ended up dead or in prison.

GARBAGE - Band members once claimed, "You have to send away and the music company gives you a choice of names. There were only two names left HOOTIE AND THE BLOWFISH and GARBAGE and we choose the better one". Total bullsh*t but funny. Anyways, evidently their first songs culled from scraps left over from other Butch Vig projects. That and some producers' opinions made GARBAGE seemed natural.

GEGGY TAH - Band member Greg Kurstin's little sister used call him "Geggy" and Tommy Jordan's little sister used to call him "Tah". They later learned that the name means "mouth thanks" in Scottish.

GENESIS - The first book in the Bible. The name was part of their first album's title "From Genesis to Revelation" which was suggested by their original manager Jonathan King.

GEORGE CLINTON AND THE P-FUNK ALL STARS - A combination of George Clinton's two earlier bands PARLIAMENT and FUNKADELIC.

GHOUL SQUAD - A Chinese friend told the band they were an "army of ghosts".

GIN BLOSSOMS - Late 1800's slang for burst capillaries on the face from drinking for many years (WC Fields nose). Gin was a popular drink of the downtrodden back then.

GO BETWEENS - They simply liked the sound of the name. They were not inspired by the 1971 Joseph Losey film called GO BETWEENS.

GODSMACK - Inspired by an ALICE IN CHAINS song and a joke between band members about cold sores on their lips.

GODSNATAS - The guitar player saw the word in a footnote while reading Dante's "Divine Comedy". Someone pointed out months later that the name was "Satan's Dog" backwards. So Dante used back masking! And those preachers thought LED ZEPPELIN started that silliness.

GOLDEN EARRING - They were originally the Tornadoes, but there was a British band with that name. A movie called GOLDEN EARRINGS was the inspiration.

GOLDFINGER - Named after the James Bond movie.

GOLGOTHA - This Black Metal band's name comes from the Mount Golgotha, where Jesus was crucified near Jerusalem. In Hebrew it means "Hill of the skull".

GOO GOO DOLLS - Nicer sounding than their original name: SEX MAGGOTS.

GOTHIC - BAUHAUS is generally considered the first Gothic band, but the origins of the term are more vague. Evidently a British journalist first called BAUHAUS "Gothic" in a negative review.

GRAND FUNK RAILROAD - A mutation of "The Grand Trunk Railroad", which is a Michigan landmark. They were originally called "The Pack".

GRATEFUL DEAD - Refers to a series of Old English folk tales with the same basic theme. A traveler enters a village and finds the villagers desecrating, or refusing to bury the body of a dead man because he died owing creditors money. The traveler pays the dead man's debts and sees to a decent burial. Later in his travels the man is saved by a mysterious event, which is credited to the dead man's grateful spirit. Hence, The Grateful Dead. The band was originally the Warlocks, and picked Grateful Dead out of a dictionary after realizing there was another band called the Warlocks.

GREAT BIG SEA - The name came from a Newfoundland folk song called "Great Big Sea Hove In Long Beach."

GREEN DAY - A bunch of stories: 1- if you smoked pot and goofed off all day, you just had a "Green Day". They used to skip high school and do this. 2- when the band members dropped out of high school to work on the band, their principal said "it'll be a green day in hell before you make anything of yourselves". 3- a sign in the movie "Soilent Green" contained GREEN DAY. The band's first name was SWEET CHILDREN.

GREEN RIVER - This Seattle area band was named after the Green River Killer, who terrorized that region and was never caught.

GREEN JELLY - They were originally called GREEN JELLO, but makers of Jell-O gelatin sued the band for using their brand name.

GTO'S - Girls Together Outrageously. Frank Zappa produced one album by this goofy bunch of hippie band groupies.

GUN CLUB - Actually thought up by Keith of CIRCLE JERKS. Jeffrey Lee Pierce thought of CIRCLE JERKS and they traded names.

GUNS N' ROSES - From Axyl Rose and Tracii Guns' names. Some think it's a combination of LA Guns and Hollywood Roses.

GUTTERMOUTH - Someone who swears a lot.

GWAR - Some rumors: "God What an Awful Racket", "Gods of War", "Gay Women Against Rape", (or make up your own). A band member on the Jerry Springer Show said they were inspired by the "GWWAAAR" sound that monsters make in movies.

NINA HAGEN - Hagen is her real last name. Hagen is also a murderous character in a 13th Century poem called the Nibelungenlied.

HAGFISH - A small eel-like fish with no jaw, a round sucking mouth and horny teeth.

HANSON BROTHERS - The goofy and rough hockey-playing brothers in the Paul Newman movie "Slapshot".

THE HAPPY MONDAYS - A response to New Order's "Blue Monday".

HARDCORE - Not sure of the origin, but bands like the DEAD KENNEDYS and BLACK FLAG were called "hardcore" in the early 80's. They played much faster and harder than the slower, more slovenly punk bands of the late 70's.

HARRY CREWS - This short-lived band featuring Kim Gordon of SONIC YOUTH and Lydia Lunch was named after the beatnik author Harry Crews.

HARVEY DANGER - Taken from graffiti on the newsroom wall of the University of Washington Daily.

HEATHEN WORLD - Inspired by THROBBING GRISTLE's amazing album HEATHEN EARTH.

HEAVEN 17 - A fictitious band mentioned in the movie "Clockwork Orange".

HEAVY METAL - A term coined by William Burroughs in the 1960's. It originally had nothing to do with music. Steppenwolf mentioned "Heavy Metal Thunder" in "Born to be Wild", which is an early reference to it in the context of loud music.

HEDNINGARNA - Means "The Heathens" in Swedish.

(HED)PE - "Hed" means "of the mind" and "pe" means "planetary evolution" or "planet earth".

HELDON - The name of a city in Norman Spinrad's novel Iron Dream, which claims to be written by a parallel universe Adolph Hitler who joined Sci-Fi fan clubs instead of armies. Heldon was a great experimental French band in the 70's.

HELIOS CREED - Helios was an ancient sun god. The Colossus of Rodan (one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World) was a huge statue depicting Helios.

HELMET - They were originally called "Purple Helmet" and decided to tone down the penis reference.

HER MAJESTY'S SECRET CERVIX - This North Carolina band was inspired by the James Bond movie "Her Majesty's Secret Service".

HOLE - Courtney's mom used to tell her "you can't go around with a hole in your head, just because you had a bad childhood".

HOLLYHOTCHERS - The bass player heard about a game called Hollyhotch (pronounced Hi-ho-che) while on vacation in Spain. The directions are to see who can pee the farthest.

HONEYMOON KILLERS - This great New York band was named after a piece of 1970 film noir.

HOOTIE AND THE BLOWFISH - There was a kid in Darius Rucker's high school who looked like and owl. They called him Hootie. There was another kid with puffed up cheeks that they called Blowfish. Hootie is also the nickname of the legendary Kansas City jazz pianist Jay McShann.

HORACE PINKER - The villain in the 80's horror movie "Shocker".

HOT TUNA - This band from the 60's was originally called HOT SHIT, but their label made them tone the name down.

HOT WATER MUSIC - Named after a Charles Bukowski book. Bukowski was a wino that wrote incredible stuff.

HP LOVECRAFT - Named after the reclusive horror writer by the same name.

HUFFAMOOSE - Canadian slang for blowjob. The band is from Philadelphia.

HUGGY BEAR - The black informant on "Starsky and Hutch".

ENGELBERT HUMPERDINCK - Named himself after the composer of "Hansel and Gretel".

HOWLIN' WOLF - This brilliant blues singer made it big in Chicago in the 50's. He howled in many early songs and had an extremely powerful voice.

HÜSKER DÜ - A couple possibilities: Husker Du is Norwegian for "Do you remember?" It was an old board game. There used to be a TV show on Norway's only station called Husker Du. The show was mostly older people requesting and remembering old songs. The band used Ü's in their spelling, which is a German letter, not Norwegian.

ICE T - Inspired by a legendary pimp from decades past called ICEBERG SLIM. ICEBERG SLIM switched to writing "gangsta" books to stay out of prison in his later years. The HEATHEN WORLD highly recommends "Pimp", which is his best-known book.

ICICLE WORKS - From Frederick Pohl's short story "The Day the Icicle Works Closed".

IMPOTENT SEA SNAKES - Strange little creatures that live in fish tanks. This band is a theatrical transvestite punk band somewhere between a low budget JIM ROSE and GWAR in a horny mood. Their live shows are very fun and probably illegal in some states. Click on the band name to see their website.

INDUSTRIAL MUSIC - Peter Christopherson of the assault electronic band THROBBING GRISTLE coined the term. Monte Cazazza, a collaborator with the band, started promoting the phrase "Industrial Music for Industrial People". THROBBING GRISTLE released albums on their label INDUSTRIAL RECORDS from the mid 1970's to 1981. Members split up to start COIL, CHRIS & COSEY, and PSYCHIC TV.

INSANE CLOWN POSSE - A spin off of INNER CITY POSSE, which is a band Shaggy and Violent J used to be in. That band didn't like the evil clown ideas.

INXS - Three members are brothers with the last name Farriss. They narrowly decided on INXS over Farriss Brothers. INXS is a cool way to spell "In Excess", which they hoped their music would be. The name has nothing to do with pantyhose or hanging.

IRON BUTTERFLY - The band wanted a name that sounded heavy and beautiful at the same time. Trivia: Their biggest hit was "In A Gadda Da Vida", which was originally called "In The Garden of Eden". The singer was so trashed on LSD one rehearsal that it came out "In A Gadda Da Vida", and the band decided that was a better name for the song.

IRON MAIDEN - Nasty medieval torture device.

IRVING KLAW TRIO - Irving Klaw was a photographer best known for his photos of Bettie Page in the 50's.

IT'S A BEAUTIFUL DAY - They were hippies from San Francisco. What do you expect?

JACK OFF JILL - Originally JACK AND JILL until MARYLIN MANSON inspired the name change.

JAMES - Named after James Joyce.

JAMIROQUAI - Two rumors: 1- singer Jay Kay has a big interest in IROQUAI Indians and wanted his band to JAM. 2- an Australian term for "one hit wonder".

JANE'S ADDICTION - A bit of debate here. First story: they are named after a drug-addicted manager they worked with named Jane. Second story: the name comes from a hooker named Jane who was a huge fan in their early days. She loved them so much they were "Jane's Addiction".

JEFFERSON AIRPLANE - Inspired by the blues player Blind Lemon Jefferson and the name of a friend's dog. Some say JEFFERSON AIRPLANE was slang for a paper match split to hold a joint.

JESUS CHRYSLER SUPERCAR - Parody of the musical "Jesus Christ Superstar".

JESUS JONES - While on a vacation in Spain, the band noticed they were Joneses (Brits) surrounded by people named Jesus.

JETHRO TULL - Jethro Tull was a British inventor/farmer in the 1800's who invented the precursor to the modern plow. The band used to change their name to get gigs, and Jethro Tull proved to be a lucky one.

JIMMIE'S CHICKEN SHACK - A shady blues restaurant in Harlem where young Charlie Parker and Malcolm X hung out. There are a lot of "Jims" in the band, too.

JOHN COUGAR CONCENTRATION CAMP - A parody of the pretentious Indiana rock star John Cougar Mellencamp.

AL JOLSON - Al and his brother were singing waiters, "The Singing Yoelson Brothers", in a rough New York bar called Callahan's Dancehall Saloon. He switched to the "Jolson" spelling when going solo.

TOM JONES - Inspired by the Henry Fielding novel called "Tom Jones".

JOY DIVISION - From a sadomasochistic novel "The House of Dolls" by Karol Cetinsky. Joy Divisions were lines of huts in which deported women were forced to prostitute themselves to Nazi officers on leave.

JUDAS PRIEST - from the BOB DYLAN tune "The ballad of Frankie Lee and Judas Priest". Also a mild curse.

KENTUCKY HEADHUNTERS - From a band led by MUDDY WATERS in the 50's called the Headchoppers.

KID ROCK - When Bob Ritchie was in high school he used to jam in Basement parties with his turntables. People would say, "Look at that kid rock!"

KILLDOZER - The name of a science fiction story about a killer bulldozer written by Theodore Sturgeon in the 40's. There was also a 1974 TV movie inspired by the story.

KILL ME KATE - Taken from the movie "From Dusk Til Dawn".

BB KING - "Blues Boy King".

KING CRIMSON - Their original lyricist, Peter Sinfield, thought of it as a synonym for BEELZEBUB, which is Hebrew for "Lord of the Flies". BEELZEBUB was Satan's chief lieutenant among the fallen angels.

KING MISSILE - A Japanese Comic book character.

KISS - According to Paul Stanley, Kiss was a momentary inspiration that sounded dangerous and sexy at the same time. Kiss denies the silly fundamentalist rumor that the name stands for "Knights In Satan's Service".

KLF - Kopyright Liberation Front which sums up their attitude towards using samples from other artists.

KMFDM - "Kein Mitleid Fuer Die Mehrheit" translates to "No sympathy for the majority". The following acronyms are fun, but wrong: "Kill MotherF*cking Depeche Mode", "Krispy Melted Fish Dealing Mescaline", and “Kyle Minogue Fans Don't Masturbate".

KONSTRUCTIVISTS - Named after the Russian Constructivists art movement, which stressed engineering and structural elements.

KORN - Various stories here. Half propagated by the band themselves: 1- singer Jonathan Davis was inspired by a twisted bit of urban folklore about a party where anglings and diarrhea result in some guy getting undigested corn in his mouth. 2- it stands for "kiddy porn." 3- it doesn't really mean anything and they liked the way "Toys R Us" reversed the R.

KRAFTWERK - German for "power plant".

KRS-ONE - A couple stories: acronym for "Knowledge Reigns Supreme Over Nearly Everyone", or his old graffiti tag KRS, which is short for his name Chris.

KULA SHAKER - I haven't been able to verify either story. 1- Kula Shaker is an ancient king of India. 2- "Kula" is Hindu for "butt". So "butt shaker".

L7 - Old slang for "square".

LACRIMOSA - This European Goth band took its name from a Latin word that means "The part of the tears", which is a common part of the Latin rite of a Requiem mass.

LAIBACH - The band is from Ljubljnana in Slovenia. The town is "Laibach" in German, which is the second language in that country.

LEAD INTO GOLD - Reference to something Alchemists kept trying to do.

LED ZEPPELIN - Stories vary, but evidently Keith Moon told Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones that their new project would go over like a lead balloon, hence, Led Zeppelin. Another story is that Page stole the name from a band "Lead Zeppelin" that Moon and Entwistle almost started in the early 60's. The "Led" spelling was to make sure people pronounced the name right.

LEMONHEADS - A type of candy.

LESS THAN JAKE - Couple stories: 1- Roger, the bassist had a dog named Jake, and whenever his parents would go out to dinner, they would bring Jake back something, but nothing for Roger. 2- "Jake" is old slang for good, so LESS THAN JAKE wouldn't be so good.

LEVEL 42 - A supercomputer in "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" spit out an answer to basically everything, it was "42". There were copyright problems with actually calling the band "42", so they tacked on "Level". The rumor that they are named after a sign in the movie "Brazil" is wrong.

LFO - Lyte Funky Ones.

LIMP BIZKIT - They asked a friend what they should call their band. He was on speed and just said, "My brain feels like a Limp Biscuit".

LIPPS, INC. - Pronounced 'lip-sync'.

THE LITTLE RIVER BAND - This Australian band was named after a signpost on the road from Melbourne to Geelong.

LL COOL J - Acronym for "Ladies Love Cool James".

LOVE AND ROCKETS - An excellent comic by the Hernandez Brothers.

LOVIN' SPOONFUL - From the lyrics of JOHN HURT's "Coffee Blues". It's also slang for sperm.

LOS LOBOS - Spanish for "The Wolves".

LUCIFER - Named after Lucifer.

LUZIFER SAM - This German "gothic groove dark metal wave" band was inspired by the song "Lucifer Sam" on the classic early PINK FLOYD album "The Piper At The Gates of Dawn".

LUSCIOUS JACKSON - A slight misspelling of "Lucious Jackson", an old basketball player.

LYNYRD SKYNYRD - Named after Leonard Skinerd, who was an annoying gym coach some band members had in high school.

MADONNA - A not very slutty Christian icon. The singer goes by Madonna Louise Ciccone.

MAN OR ASTROMAN? - The 60's movie SPACE ZOMBIES featured aliens that were hard to tell from real men. They were called Astromen.

MANO NEGRA - "Black Hand" in Spanish. It is Mexican and Spanish slang for cheating.

MANOWAR - A huge famous battle ship.

MAN WILL SURRENDER - A twist on the song "Man Should Surrender" by Pailhead.

MANIC STREET PREACHERS - James Dean Bradfield was inspired by a manic street-preaching tramp one day.

MANSUN - From an early song by The Verve, "A Man Called Sun". The similarity to famous hippie mind control expert Charlie Manson was no doubt taken into consideration as well.

MARCY PLAYGROUND - The singer used to go to a hippie grade school called Marcy Open School. He was afraid of bullies on the playground.

MARILLION - Inspired by JRR Tolkein's "Silmarillion" and probably modified to avoid copyright problems.

MARY PRANKSTER - Inspired by Ken Kesey's Merry Pranksters, who were those hippies known for hosting many Acid Tests in San Francisco.

MARILYN MANSON - Marilyn Monroe and Charles Manson. Two of America's favorite celebrities!

MASTER/SLAVE RELATIONSHIP - Inspired by her personal interest in S&M.

MC5 - The band liked the name for some reason before thinking up the acronym "Motor City Five" (they were 5 loud hippies from Detroit).

MC 900 FT. JESUS - Inspired by the 900 foot tall Jesus Oral Roberts claims he saw in Oklahoma. The 900-foot Jesus told Oral Roberts he needed a few million dollars to continue his ministry and some rich sucker gave it to him.

McCOYS - Named after the VENTURES song McCOY.

MDC - "Millions of Dead Cops", "Multi-Death Corporation", "Millions of Dead Chickens", etc. depending on which of their albums you look at.

MEGADETH - Dave Mustane was inspired by a government pamphlet after getting kicked out of METALLICA. A Mega death is a military term for one million dead people, so World War II was responsible for 80 Mega deaths. MEGADETH is the phonetic spelling for Mega death.

MEKONS - Sci-fi villains in the "Dan Dare" cartoon strip in a British publication called the Eagle Comic.

MELVINS - You give someone a melvin by approaching from behind, and yanking up on the waistband of their underwear as hard as you can. Melvin was also a local character in Washington State arrested for stealing a Christmas tree.

MENTORS - They were into fusion music while growing up, and would "mentor" other people by playing it for them and convincing them that it was great stuff. They used the word already and it evolved into the group's name. The title links to their official website. Il Duce is dead but the band lives on.

METALLICA - Two stories: 1- Lars Ulrich was helping a friend think of a name for a metal fanzine. The magazine went with METAL MANIA and Lars kept METALLICA, which was one of the suggestions. A 2nd story claims it is a combination of Metal and Vodka into the word METALLICA.

MIAMI'S HAIRY PUSSY - Inspired by John Lennon's pet name for Yoko Ono(!)

THE MIGHTY MIGHTY BOSSTONES - This ska/punk band was originally the BOSSTONES in tribute to their hometown, Boston. After they realized there was a 1950's Harvard group with the same name a bartender friend recommended the MIGHTY, MIGHTY part.

MIND BENDERS - This 60's band was named after a 1962 British horror movie.

MINISTRY - Inspired by a B-movie called "Ministry of Fear".

MISFITS - A 1961 movie starring Clarke Gable and Marilyn Monroe.

MK ULTRA - The code name for the CIA's wildly irresponsible LSD experiments in the late 50's and early 60's. There is both a cool gothic tabloid and a lame band that use this name.

MODERN VENDING - The name of a snack company in Indianapolis. Vans are often seen in the city with MODERN VENDING painted on the side.

MODEST MOUSE - Two Stories: 1- a phrase practiced by people with speech impediments. Evidently the lead singer has a lisp. 2- Inspired by composer Modest Mussorgsky (the guy who wrote "Pictures from an Exhibition")

MOLLIES REVENGE - Molly is British slang for prostitute.

MOLLY HATCHET - Named after a famous 17th Century axe murderess that had a habit of beheading her lovers.

MONSTER MAGNET - Taken from the Frank Zappa song "The Return Of The Son Of Monster Magnet".

MOODY BLUES - They were originally "M&B 5" because they wanted to perform in a Birmingham brewery called "Mitchell's Bottlery." The building had a big "MB". It didn't work so they changed names. DUKE ELLINGTON's "Mood Indigo" was one member's favorite song.

MORPHINE - Exciting fun for kids of all ages.

MORTIIS - The band originally thought it translated to "death" in Latin. They realized they spelled it wrong a couple years later, but thought it looked cool anyway.

JELLY ROLL MORTON - "Jelly Roll" is slang for penis. This New Orleans piano player and pimp was one of the first Jazz musicians ever.

MOTHERS OF INVENTION - Originally just called the Mothers (polite for Motherf*ckers) - their label asked them to add "of Invention".

MOTLEY CRUE - An observant friend said "What a Motley looking Crue".

MOTORHEAD - British slang for a speed freak (which Lemmy evidently was).

MOTT THE HOOPLE - From a novel of the same name by Willard Manus. The book is about an eccentric that works in a circus freak show. The band was originally called SILENCE.

MR. BUNGLE - Named after an old 1950's sketch about a boy who didn't fit in, featured on an early episode of Pee Wee's Playhouse.

MR. MISTER - From a T-REX song on the Tanx album.

MR. T EXPERIENCE - Combination of the Jimi Hendrix Experience and that goofball television mean guy Mr. T.

MU330 - Couple stories: 1- MU for Music and 330 was the time their music class met. 2- the number of the music room they met in while in high school.

MUDDY WATERS - Inspired by the muddy waters of the Mississippi River near where he grew up.

MUDHONEY - A Russ Meyer movie.

MUGWUMPS - from a William Burroughs novel. Cass Elliot was in this band before the MAMAS AND POPPAS.

MUSSOLINI HEADKICK - The name of an old CABARET VOLTAIRE song.

MxPx - Their original name was Magnified Plaid. On a poster for one of their shows, the guitarist put M.P., but the periods looked like little x's so people thought they were MxPx. The nickname stuck.

MY BLOODY VALENTINE - This Irish/English band was named after a horror film they never even saw.

MY LIFE WITH THE THRILL KILL KULT - They originally wanted to create a movie with this name. The movie never happened, but much of the soundtrack became their first album, "I See Good Spirits and I See Bad Spirits".

MYSTERY MACHINE - The name of Scooby Doo and his gang's vehicle.

NAKED LUNCH - The title of the famous William Burroughs book.

NASHVILLE PUSSY - On Ted Nugent's "Double Live Gonzo" album he dedicates his song "Wang Dang Sweet Poontang" to "All that Nashville Pussy."

NATAS - These hardcore rappers wanted an evil name and decided on SATAN backwards.

NAZARETH - It's that old city that Jesus was born in. It also pops up in the first line of the Band's song "The Weight".

NED'S ATOMIC DUSTBIN - The title for an episode of "The Goon Show", which was an old show featuring Peter Sellers.

NEGATIVELAND - The band name and their label name (Seeland) are song titles by an obscure German band NEU.

NERF HERDER - What Princess Leia called Hans Solo in the Empire Strikes Back.

NEW ORDER - "The New World Order" and "New Order" were famous expressions used by Hitler (and George Bush during the Gulf War).

NEW WAVE - New Wave and Punk were originally marketed as basically the same thing, then New Wave evolved into a term for the quirky happy bands that weren't as pissed off as Punk bands, but still wanted to avoid the BILLE SQUIRE type muck popular at the time.

NEW YORK DOLLS - Ironic name for five ugly junkies in New York that dressed as women on stage.

NICKELBACK - The bass player used to work at Starbucks coffee and spent many days saying, "here's your nickel back."

NICO - She disliked her given name Christa because it sounded "so German". A photographer called her NICO in tribute to a friend of his named Nico Papatakis.

NINE INCH NAILS - Trent Reznor thought NIN looked cool when he wrote it down, and this is evidently the length of coffin nails. Some think the nails used to crucify Jesus were nine inches long, but inches were not a unit of measurement back then.

NINE POUND HAMMER - A Merle Travis song.

NIRVANA - In Buddhism it means the state of perfect blessedness attained through the annihilation of the self. Evidently Kurt Cobain took the "annihilation of the self" part a little too seriously.

NOCTURNAL EMISSIONS - What caused those messy sheets this morning.

NOFX - Sound Engineer's shorthand for "No Effects". As a punk band they don't appreciate much studio "enhancement" of their sound. The band also says it means "No Fucking Straight Edge" (straight edgers like using a big X, such as in sXe).

NOTA - Stands for "None Of The Above". This great punk rock band from Tulsa, Oklahoma has been around since 1980 or so.

N SYNC - From the last letter of each band member's name: justiN, chriS, joeY, lanstoN and jC.

GARY NUMAN - His real name is Gary Webb. He took "Neuman" from a Yellow Pages listing for a plumbing company and modified the spelling.

OASIS - Oasis is the name of a Sports Centre in Swindon, England. Noel Gallacher was a groupie for a band that played there once. The band has also claimed: a Manchester cab company, a chain of women's clothing stores, and a local Indian Restaurant.

THE OD'S - The Orange Doe-nuts (they were a great punk band from Kansas City in the 1980's).

THE OFFSPRING - Two stories: 1- They consider themselves the musical offspring of the DESCENDENTS. 2- The 80's B-horror movie "The Offspring - They Were Born To Kill".

OINGO BOINGO - Swahili for "thinking while dancing". They started out as a musical theater group called "The Mystic Knights of the Oingo Boingo".

O'JAYS - Named after the Cleveland DJ Eddie O'Jay, who helped the band out in their early days. They were originally called The Mascots.

OMD - Orchestral Maneuvers in the Dark.

ONE FOOT IN THE GRAVE - Reflects the age of this band. Possibly the only senior citizen punk rock band in the world.

THE ORB - A device in Woody Allen's movie "Sleeper". The Orb was a silver ball that made people very buzzed when they touched it. Woody Allen hogged it at a party until someone snatched it away.

ORGY - Refers to the "orgy of sound" they create. The sexual connotation surely wasn't lost on them either.

OZARK MOUNTAIN DAREDEVILS - A big improvement over their original name the BUFFALO CHIPS. The Ozark Mountains are actually hills in Southern Missouri and Northern Arkansas.

OZOMATLI - The Aztec God of dance.

OZZY OSBORNE - "OZZY" was his childhood nickname.

OSTZONENSUPPENWURFELMACHENKREBS - From a headline in the German tabloid BILD. It translates to "Soup cubes from East Germany cause cancer".

OUR LADY PEACE - This Canadian band named themselves after a 1940 poem by Mark Van Doren.

PANSY DIVISION - A twist on JOY DIVISION that reflects PANSY'S DIVISION'S homosexuality.

PANTERA - Their first name was PANTEGO, the name of a Texas town. PANTERA is Portuguese for Panther.

PAVLOV'S DOG - This St. Louis band is named after the famous salivating dog experiments of Russian physiologist and experimental psychologist Ivan Petrovich Pavlov.

PEARL JAM - Eddie's grandma's peyote jam. Evidently, they took it as kids and called it pearl jam. It's also slang for sperm. They almost named themselves "Mookie Blaylock" after their favorite basketball player.

PENETRATORS - From the song "Penetration" by The Pyramids. The first song they learned to play.

PENNYWISE - Named after the clown in Stephen King's novel IT.

PERE UBU - The main character in Alfred Jarry's play, Ubu Roi.

PET SHOP BOYS - Inspired by friends who worked in pet shops.

PHANTOM TOLLBOOTH - Named after a very cool children's book by Norton Juster. There was also a movie made of the story in the 60's featuring Butch Patrick (Eddie on the Munsters).

PHISH - A play on drummer John Fishman's last name. The BEATLES influenced the altered spelling. The band sometimes claims "PH" reminds them of the sound of a plane taking off..."phhhhsssssss".

PHOBOS - This Dutch band named themselves after one of the moons around planet Mars. PHOBOS also means fear in Greek.

PIGPEN - This fun, short-lived band from New York was named after the dirty kid in Peanuts comics.

PINK FLOYD - Named after Georgia blues musicians Pink Anderson and Floyd Council. They almost named themselves "Anderson Council" and "Mega death".

THE PIXIES - The band's guitar player was learning English and noticed the word in a dictionary. They thought it would be funny to have a big guy like Black Francis fronting a band called "The Pixies".

PJ HARVEY - Polly Jean Harvey.

PLUG UGLIES - This Chicago band named themselves after a notorious New York street gang from the 1800's.

PM DAWN - Inspired by a Bible quote, "In the darkest hour comes the light."

POCO - They were originally Pogo, but the creator of the comic strip Pogo sued, forcing them to change the name.

THE POGUES - Shortened from "Pogue Mahone", which is a distorted version of Póg Mo hÓn, which is Irish Gaelic for "kiss my ass".

POLICE - For some reason they enjoy using themes related to law enforcement. Consider STING's name and the Stuart Copeland side project Klark Kent. One of Stuart Copeland's brothers used to head I.R.S. Records and another brother ran the FBI Tour Agency.

POOP SHOVEL - Named after "Pooper Scoopers".

IGGY POP & THE STOOGES - IGGY has been his nickname since childhood. The Stooges were originally the PSYCHEDELIC STOOGES combining their love of drugs with "The Three Stooges". After hippies picked up on "psychedelic" as a fave word the STOOGES dropped it.

POP WILL EAT ITSELF - PWEI apparently agreed with an article in NME titled "Will Pop Eat Itself?"

PORNO FOR PYROS - A couple stories: 1-Perry Farrell was reading a fireworks catalog on a tour bus when a pal said the magazine looked like smut for arsonists. It sparked his imagination. 2-Farrell realized watching L.A. riots on TV was probably Porno for Pyros.

PORTISHEAD - The name of their hometown in England.

THE PRETENDERS - Named after the PLATTERS song "The Great Pretender".

PRETTY BOY FLOYD - The name of a notorious Mafia hitman.

THE PRETTY THINGS - After the BO DIDDLEY song "Pretty Thing". They were actually an ugly, loud band.

PRIMAL SCREAM - A psychological best seller by Arthur Janov.

PRIMUS - They called themselves the PRIMATES but heard about another band with the same name, so they evolved into PRIMUS (which means "first" in Latin).

THE PROCOL HARUM - Named after Keith Reid's cat.

THE PRODIGY - Named after the Moog Prodigy, the first synthesizer that Liam Howlett from the band had.

PROFESSOR LONGHAIR - "professor" was the title given to New Orleans whorehouse piano players. He had long hair, too.

PROPELLERHEADS - Slang for computer nerds.

PSYCHEDELIA SMITH - A spoof on Delia Smith, who is the most famous TV chef in Britain.

PSYCHEDELIC FURS - They enjoy psychedelic music even though they don't play it. After a night of drinking and toying with names like PSYCHEDELIC SHOES, SHIRTS, SOCKS, etc. FURS sounded good.

PSYCHEFUNKAPUS - A character in a FUNKADELIC song.

PSYCHIC TV - Psychic TV and thee Temple Ov Psychick Youth were created by Genesis P. Orridge ov THROBBING GRISTLE. Genesis's theory of magic encourages using all thee technologies currently available (including TV) for psychic purposes. Temple Ov Psychick Youth is a loosely cooperating world wide magical community. They look cool and actively misspell words, adding "k" at thee end of everything and they write "ov" and "thee" a lot.

PUFF DADDY - He used to puff out his chest to look bigger during sports.

PULP - Originally known as Arabacus Pulp (after a commodity Jarvis Cocker learned about during economics). This was shortened to Pulp because nobody else knew what the full name meant.

PUNK - It's a prison and street insult implying homosexuality, weakness, etc. Malcolm McLaren promoted the SEX PISTOLS as punk rock, and everyone jumped on the bandwagon. Wayne Kramer (from the legendary hell raising 60's band MC5) was in prison at the time punk picked up popularity. He threw away mail mentioning his influence on punk rock because in prison punk was not something he cared to associate himself with.

PUSKAS - This Hungarian band from Fleet, on the Hampshire/Surrey border, is named after Hungarian football legend Ferenc Puskas. He was in the first team to beat England at Wembley and is known for wild partying.

PUSSY GALORE - A name with great shock value taken from the sexy character in the James Bond movie "Goldfinger".

PYLON - A William Faulkner novel.

QUEEN - Freddie Mercury liked the name for the transvestite connotation and the glamorous image of Queens in royalty.

QUEERS - Named themselves this despite the fact that they are all heterosexual.

RADIOHEAD - Named after a TALKING HEADS song called Radio Head.

RAMMSTEIN - Evidently not named after the German town and airfield called Ramstein. RAMMSTEIN is old-fashioned German for (basically) a big stone doorstop. Some think the name is a German euphemism for penis.

RAMONES - Early in his career, Paul McCartney used to call himself Paul Ramone.

RAPEMAN - This Steve Albini band was named after a very violent Japanese Comic book character.

RASPUTINA - A twist on Rasputin's name. He was a powerful and rebellious Russian cleric who couldn't keep his dick in his pants, especially around the Czar's wife. He finally died after being poisoned, castrated, shot and drowned all in one night.

REAL MCCOY - Originally called MC Sar & the Real McCoy. MC Sar was dropped to dissociate the band from rap music when they came to the US.

RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS - They were originally called "Tony Flow and the Miraculously Majestic Masters of Mayhem". Anthony Kiedis says he was inspired to change the name to the Red Hot Chili Peppers by "a psychedelic bush with the band's name on it".

R.E.M. - Michael Stipe closed his eyes and stuck his finger in a dictionary. R.E.M. (Rapid Eye Movement) is a state of sleep. Other fun acronyms are: "Righteous Energetic Music", "Really Enjoy Masturbating" and "Rear End Men."

REO SPEEDWAGON - It was the name of a pick-up truck made by Oldsmobile in the 1930's. "REO" is the initials of Ransom Elliot Olds, who was the founder of the Oldsmobile Car Company.

REO SPEED DEALER - Parody of REO SPEEDWAGON.

THE REPLACEMENTS - Legend has it that they were given a gig after another band failed to show up one night. When asked who they were, Paul Westerberg quipped, "We're the Replacements".

THE RESIDENTS - The band initially had no name. All their rejection letters were addressed to "Resident".

REVOLTING COCKS - Thought up in an all-night drinking/drug binge at the Wax Trax records office.

RIDEL HIGH - The High School in the movie Grease.

ROCK AND ROLL - Old slang for sex. The Boswell Sisters recorded a song called "Rock and Roll" in 1934, long before rock music evolved. Early 50's disc jockey Alan Freed is credited for popularizing the term as we think of it today.

ROLLING STONES - From the MUDDY WATERS song "Rolling Stone". The name was suggested by Brian Jones.

THE ROOSTERS - This New Jersey band named themselves after the great HOWLIN' WOLF song "Little Red Rooster".

ROSETTA STONE - A famous archeological find. It's an old stone with a message repeated in different languages. It helped Archeologists figure out Egyptian hieroglyphics.

JOHNNY ROTTEN - Named after his rotten teeth.

RUN DMC - A couple stories about this one. Either inspired by combining the names of DJ Run and Daryl Mack or a mishap while cooking chicken. Evidently the stove caught on fire and a band member's mom came in screaming, "What are you doing?” he said "Done Making Chicken!" and Ran off really fast.

RUSH - They were rushing to think up a name before their first gig, and John Rustey's older brother yelled, "Why don't you call your band RUSH?"

SAMHAIN - The Celtic New Year, which has evolved into Halloween.

SAVAGE GARDEN - From an Ann Rice novel.

SAVE FERRIS - From a sign in the movie FERRIS BUELLER'S DAY OFF.

SCREAMIN' CHEETAH WHEELIES - Inspired by a Far Side cartoon with Cheetahs in it.

SCREAMING TREES - The model of a guitar effects pedal.

SCRITTI POLITTI - The title of political writings by Antonio Gramsci, an Italian Marxist.

SELECTOR - The Selectors in Jamaican and British dancehall culture are the disc jockeys that play records for dancehall rappers.

SEPULTURA - The singer was inspired when translating the Motorhead song "Dancing on your Grave", which is "Dancando Na Sepultura" in Portuguese.

SEX PISTOLS - Malcolm Mclaren came up with the name. It was partially inspired by his wife’s punk clothing shop called "Sex".

SEVEN MARY THREE - John Baker's call numbers in the old TV show CHIPS. The band members all went to College of William and Mary as well.

SHUDDER TO THINK - One of the band members said, "I shudder to think, we'll be another pop band".

SICATA - Inspired by all the cicadas falling out of the trees when they were trying to think up a name.

SIGUE SIGUE SPUTNIK - Once the name of a Russian street gang, it means "burn burn Sputnik".

SILVERCHAIR - A mutated combination of "Sliver" by Nirvana and "Berlin Chair" by You Am I. They were requesting the songs from a radio station and the name was inspired by notes a band member made to himself to remember the song titles.

SILVERFISH - A bug.

SIMON & GARFUNKLE - Paul SIMON and Art GARFUNKLE. They recorded as TOM AND JERRY in the 50's. Their only hit from that period was "Hey School Girl" in 1957.

SIMPLE MINDS - Taken from a line in the David Bowie song "Jean Genie".

SISTER HAZEL - Named after a Black woman who ran "Sister Hazel's Rescue Mission" in Gainesville, FL in the 70's & 80's.

SISTERS OF MERCY - A tribute to the Leonard Cohen song of same name. There is also an order of nuns known as the Sisters of Mercy.

SISTERS OF MURPHY - This Irish band from London spoofed the name Sisters of Mercy.

SKID ROW - Slang for run down inner city neighborhoods where winos, junkies, street criminals and various poor people can afford to live. Sabo originally liked the name SKIP ROPE, but Jon Bon Jovi convinced him SKID ROW would sound more professional.

SKINNY PUPPY - The basic idea is of an abused, neglected animal that doesn't speak much, but when it does the result is a pain filled yelp. Piece of trivia: Skinny Puppy has the morbid honor that Jeffrey Dahmer picked up one of his victims at one of their shows.

SKUNK ANANSIE - Anansie is a creature in Jamaican folklore that is half man, half spider, and always a prankster. Skunk refers to either good marijuana or the smelly little black and white animals.

SKYCLAD - Modern pagan term for naked. A band and a label both use this name.

SLAYER - Inspired by the movie "Dragonslayer". Also, "Satan Laughs As You Eternally Rot" appears on their Divine Intervention album.

SLEATER-KINNEY - The name of the road their practice space was on in Lacey, Washington.

SLEEPER - The title of a Woody Allen movie.

SLOAN - Two stories: inspired by either Farris Bueller's girlfriend Sloan Peterson or a friend named "Slow One".

SMACK - Slang for heroin. They were an amazing band that had a big influence on GUNS AND ROSES.

SMALL FACES - They were inspired by the WHO song "I'm the FACE". Face is Mod slang for "stylish guy". They were all SMALL guys as well. They later shortened the name to FACES when taller guys Rod Stewart and Ron Wood joined.

SMASHING PUMPKINS - A few stories and plenty of BS around this one: Billy Corgan claims Gene Simmons told him in a dream that "Joe Strummer is a pumpkin, drunken and smashed". Corgan has also claimed he meant "smashing" as an adjective, as in "daring pumpkins". Billy Corgan's hometown is known for its pumpkins. The name is a rumored revenge against his hometown an ex-girlfriend who said he would be there for the rest of his life.

THE SMITHEREENS - Inspired by the cartoon character Yosemite Sam's classic line, "I'll blow you varmints to smithereens".

THE SMITHS - They wanted a generic name void of any preconceptions about their style of music.

SNAP KRACKLE DROP - Inspired by the Rice Crispy cereal jingle "Snap, Crackle, Pop".

SNEAKER PIMP - Members of the BEASTIE BOYS pay someone to help them find especially hard-to-get sneakers. He's the "sneaker pimp".

SOFT BOYS - Combination of two William Burroughs novels, "Soft Machine" and "Wild Boys".

SOFT MACHINE - The name of a William Burroughs novel.

SONIC YOUTH - A combination of SONIC RENDEZVOUS ORCHESTRA and BIG YOUTH. They were local New York bands in the late 70's.

SONNY AND CHER - An improvement over their first stage name, "Caesar and Cleo".

SONS OF MIDNIGHT - Two members are from ELECTRIC HELLFIRE CLUB. "Sons of Midnight" was a trouble making social club in the 18th century similar to the original "Hellfire Clubs".

SOULFLY - Max Cavelera was remembering his friend and stepson Dana Wells, who had recently died. He was also thinking of Dana when he co-wrote the DEFTONES song "Headup" that has the lyric "soul fly fly high so fly fly free".

SOUNDGARDEN - A garden of kinetic sculptures that make music when wind blows through them. There was also a sculpture in Seattle called "Sound Garden".

SOUTHERN CULTURE ON THE SKIDS - Bandleader Rick Miller and a friend heard a disc jockey call REM "the sound of the new Southern culture". They decided they'd rather hear Southern culture on the skids.

SPACE NEGROES - Who knows?

SPANDAU BALLET - This was a Nazi guard term for the contortions of Jewish prisoners being gassed to death. There was a large gas chamber in the city of Spandau.

SPEEDBALL - A mix of heroin and cocaine. John Belushi's fatal drug cocktail.

SPK - Named after a group of German mental patients from the late 60's who formed a violent terrorist group called the "Socialist Patients Kollectiv". Click on the band name for more information. SPK also called themselves "SePuKu" and "Surgical Penis Klinik" on various releases.

SPRING HEEL JACK - Named after a supernatural, Satanic figure that haunted early Victorian Liverpool, spooking horses, leaping over twenty-foot walls and generally scaring the hell out of everyone.

SQUID VICIOUS - It sounded slightly better than SQUID & NANCY, BILLY THE SQUID and SQUID RACER.

SQUIRREL NUT ZIPPERS - A type of candy the band likes. The candy was popular in the early 1900's.

SST - Acronym for Super Sonic Transport planes. The planes cause sonic booms, which are alarmingly loud. Most of the bands on SST Records are just as loud.

ST. ETIENNE - A French Soccer club and city.

ST. VITUS DANCE - Victims poisoned by a particular fungus hallucinate and their muscles jerk involuntarily in a macabre dance. This was most common in Europe in the Middle Ages. Saint Vitas is the patron saint of people with this infliction.

RINGO STARR - His real name is Richard Starkey. He liked to wear rings, hence RINGO and STARR is his last name shortened and modified.

STARSHIP - A bid to sound updated and keep making money, JEFFERSON AIRPLANE updated their name to JEFFERSON STARSHIP in the 70's, and then shortened that to STARSHIIP.

STEELY DAN - A dildo in the William Burroughs novel Naked Lunch. According to Burroughs, the first STEELY DAN was a metal dildo that an evil German bulldyke prostitute crushed using her pussy, and the second STEELY DAN is still in use.

STEPPENWOLF - The title of a cool Herman Hesse novel.

STEREOLAB - The name of a record label in the 50's and 60's.

STING - Gordon Summers used to wear a yellow/black-striped shirt when in a jazz band and he looked like a bee. The STING nickname grew from that.

STINKING LIZAVETA - This Philadelphia band named themselves after a character in Dostoyevski's "The Brothers Karamazov." The insane drifter character turned out to be the mother of one of the Brothers Karamazov.

STONE ROSES - Similar to their original name, ENGLISH ROSE (which was inspired by a JAM song).

STONE TEMPLE PILOTS - They were originally called Mighty Joe Young, but that's the name of a blues singer. They were fond of STP oil stickers, and thought up Shirley Temple's Pussy, Stereo Temple Pirates, and finally Stone Temple Pilots.

STRAWBERRY TRIP MONSTER - The name of their favorite Odwalla drink: The Strawberry "C" Monster.

STRYPER - From the Bible, Isaiah 53:5- "But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities, upon him was the chastisement that made us whole, and with his stripes we are healed".

STYX - After the mythical river Styx that people crossed over to go into Hell.

SUGARCUBES - Dripping liquid LSD on Sugar cubes is a time honored way to "package" LSD.

SUGAR RAY - Named after the boxer Sugar Ray Leonard who named himself after the boxer Sugar Ray Robinson. They used to practice in a studio owned by Sugar Ray Leonard.

SUICIDE MACHINES - inspired by Dr. Kevorkian's "deathmobile" They were originally called "Dr. Kevorkian and the Suicide Machines".

SUPERFRIENDZ - An old cartoon show about DC comic book heroes.

SUPERGRASS - Good marijuana.

SUPEROPUS - They were originally OPUS (inspired by the cartoon character?) but another band was already using the name.

SUPERTRAMP - Named after a cool book called "Autobiography Of A Supertramp", written by R.E. Davies in 1910.

SWANS - Front man Michael Gira wanted a name that was in total contrast to brutally abrasive music the band was playing in its early days.

SWINGIN' NECKBREAKERS - A truly excellent and devastating wrestling move.

TAD - Is the name of a band member.

TALKING HEADS - Video jargon for a camera shot showing only the top of someone's shoulders and their head. Newscasters are usually doomed to the classic "talking head" shot. Another story is that they were inspired by a military communications experiment at MIT, which involved moving mannequin heads.

TARANIS - named after the Celtic God of Thunder. The word means "The Thunderer".

TEARDROP EXPLODES - A line in a Marvel Comic.

TEN YEARS AFTER - "Ten Years After Elvis". Alvin Lee also fronted a band called TEN YEARS LATER that was 10 Years after TEN YEARS AFTER.

TESLA - In tribute to the brilliant and eccentric inventor Nikola Tesla. Tesla developed alternating current, radio, wireless communications, fluorescent lights, X-rays, microwaves, the theories that lead to the Star wars defense system and more. Over 700 patents in all.

TEXAS - This Scottish band thought the movie Paris, Texas was cool.

TEXAS IS THE REASON - Taken from a line in the MISFITS song "Bullet", about the Kennedy assassination.

THE VERVE - "The" is in their name to avoid legal hassles with the record label VERVE. VERVE means talent.

THEY MIGHT BE GIANTS - They took the name from a friend's ventriloquist act, which was named after a film starring George C. Scott, which was inspired by a section of Don Quixote. Don Quixote's trusted servant asks why he is preparing to attack several windmills with his lance. Don Quixote replies, "Because they might be giants."

THIRD EYE BLIND - Refers to being blind in your third eye of intuition.

THOMSON TWINS - Two characters in the Tintin comics by the (now dead) Belgium artist Herge.

THOSE MEDDLING KIDS - This old Phoenix punk outfit was inspired by the phrase from Scooby Doo cartoons.

THREE DOG NIGHT - Inspired by an Australian Aborigine custom of sleeping with three dogs on extremely cold nights.

THROBBING GRISTLE - Yorkshire slang for erection.

TILED CEILING - This diverse band was looking for an outrageous name, and found out that some people actually tile their ceilings.

TLC - From the nicknames of band members: Tionne "T-Boz" Watkins, Lisa "Left Eye" Lopez and originally Crystal, but now Rozonda "Chilli". TLC is also an acronym for "Tender Loving Care".

TO LIVE AND SHAVE IN L.A. - Named after a Ron Jeremy porn film (which was a parody of "To Live and Die in L.A.")

TOAD THE WET SPROCKET - From a Monty Python sketch making fun of silly band names.

TONES ON TAIL - Refers to reference tones put on reel-to-reel tape in recording studios.

TOXIC HOLIDAY - Another dictionary related one: the drummer was looking for a name and read out Toxicology. The bass player thought he said Toxic Holiday.

THE TRAGICALLY HIP - Taken from a line in a Michael Nesmith skit called Elephant Parts.

THE TROGGS - From the term "troglodyte".

TRU SMOKE DIEZEL - The name of a toy truck. They were called MONSTER-X but ran into copyright problems.

TUSCADERO - Pinkie Tuscadero was Fonzie's girlfriend in Happy Days.

U2 - A type of spy plane used by the United States. Bono explained once that U2 grew out of thoughts of interactivity with the audience. As in "you too."

UB40 - Title of the form people in Britain have to fill out to receive public assistance.

UGLY KID JOE - A parody of PRETTY BOY FLOYD. A band they played a show with early on.

ULTIMATE SPINACH - Who knows? Some long forgotten stoned hippie inspiration.

ULTRAVOX - Latin for "the greatest amount of voice".

UNRUH - This grind core band is named after Charles Unruh. A Vietnam War vet that went crazy and shot 12 people (after the war).

URGE OVERKILL - Named after a PARLIAMENT song.

URIAH HEEP - From a character in the Dickens novel "David Copperfield".

URUSEI YATSURA - Japanese animation.

VAN HALEN - Named after Alex (not Eddie) VanHalen.

VANILLA FUDGE - This awful name was an improvement over their original name, THE PIGEONS.

VELVET UNDERGROUND - The name of an S&M book a band member found on a sidewalk in New York.

VERUCA SALT - Named after a character in the book, "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory", later made into the film "Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory".

EDDIE "CLEANHEAD" VINSON - This great Jump Blues singer and sax player was nicknamed "Cleanhead" because of his shaved head.

VIOLENT FEMMES - Someone early on said they sound like violent femmes.

VOLUPTUOUS HORROR OF KAREN BLACK - In reference to the Horror film actress Karen Black. This band is sexy, messy, and loads of fun live.

VOODOO GLOW SKULLS - Their name was inspired by plastic "voodoo glow skulls" sold at Disneyland.

WALT MINK - Named after the band's favorite psychology professor.

WAR - Eric Burdon called the band WAR just to attract attention because the hippies were so anti-war.

WARM JETS - Named after the Brian Eno song "Here Come the Warm Jets".

W.A.S.P. - We Are Sex Perverts.

WEEZER - Vocalist/guitarist/front man Rivers Cuomo had the nickname Weezer in school. He was a bit of a geek and made wheezing sounds because of his asthma.

WHAM! - They wanted to make it so big in the music business that they named their duo WHAM! And their debut album "Make It Big" (The kind of deep philosophy that United States commercial radio thrives on).

WHITE CROSS - After "speed" pills of the same name.

WHITE FLAG - Parody of the band name BLACK FLAG.

WHITE ZOMBIE - An old B-movie starring Bela Lugosi.

THE WHO - The legend goes like this: a bunch of people were brainstorming for names. The band members were already so deaf they kept saying, "the who?” Finally, someone suggested THE WHO as their name.

WINGS - Paul McCartney thought of the name while waiting in a hospital wing for Linda to give birth to one of their children.

WOLFMAN JACK - This famous disc jockey was inspired by the Chicago blues singer HOWLIN' WOLF.

XTC - Two stories: 1- Andy Partridge was inspired by a Jimmy Durante clip when he said "'dats it, I'm in ecstasy!" 2- a brand of condoms. Note: XTC was around before the popular 80's drug Xtasy.

YELLOWMAN - A nickname somewhat describing the hair and skin color of this Albino from Jamaica.

YO LA TENGO - A phrase used by a Hispanic baseball player that the band likes. It translates to "I have it".

ZEPHYR - Greek mythological god of the West wind. Heroin addicted guitarist Tommy Bolin was in this band before joining DEEP PURPLE in the early 70's. Zephyr was also a car.

ZOS KIA - Named after a writing by Austin Osman Spare, who was a witch often compared to Aliester Crowley. The Zos Kia Cultus described "the technique of making the tantric utterance effective, of resounding the depths of cosmic memory and making the sacred alignments". The band ZOS KIA is a side project by Temple of Psychic Youth members.

ZZ TOP - Possibly inspired by ZIG ZAG rolling papers, TOPS rolling papers, and/or Texas Blues man ZZ HILL.

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