ABBA
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 sewing machine. It stood for 'Alternating Current / Direct Current'. The band didn't realize it was also slang for bi-sexual, which caused a few misunderstandings in their early days.

Aerosmith
Taken from the 1925 book, 'Arrowsmith' by Sinclair Lewis.

 

Alice in Chains

A funny rumor is that they were named after a lost episode from The Brady Bunch series!

 

Anthrax

Scott Ian got the name "anthrax" from his biology class in high school. He thought it was a cool name. Although they got a lot of backlash during the anthrax attacks of late 2001.

 

Beatles
Original bassist Stuart Sutcliffe came up with the Beetles in 1960, which was a play on Buddy Holly's Crickets. John Lennon is generally credited with combining Beetles and Beat to come up with the Beatles spelling.

 

Black Sabbath
Named after a 1963 horror movie starring Boris Karloff.

 

Blue Oyster Cult
A combination of a recipe that the band's manager read in a book and the band's fascination with the occult.

 

The Byrds
A band called the Beefeaters was having Thanksgiving dinner when they tried coming up with a new name. Singer, Gene Clark offered "The Birdsies." Nobody liked that name and producer Jim Dickson said, "How about the Birds"? "Birds" was slang in England for girls and the band didn't want to be called "the Girls". Guitarist, Roger McGuinn came up with the B-Y-R-D-S spelling, and it stuck.

 

The Cranberries

Originally called Cranberries Saw Us (a joke on Cranberries SAUCE) they changed it to the shorter form later.

 

Creed

Creed is from the former bassist, Brain Mashall, and he was in a group before CREED and it was named Madox's Creed and they were playing around with the word creed and their names. They finally settled on just Creed. Alternate theory: They got their name from a book by Steven King titled " Pet Cemetery". Creed was the family's last name.

 

Creedance Clearwater Revival
Originally called The Golliwogs, unconfirmed reports say the band took their new name from Norvel Creedence, a friend of band leader John Fogerty. John's favorite beer was called Clearwater , which, after it disappeared from the market for a time, was re-introduced by another brewery. The result: Creedence Clearwater Revival.

 

Deep Purple
Guitarist Ritchie Blackmore's grandmother liked the Bing Crosby song "Deep Purple".

Def Leppard
Inspired by a drawing Joe Elliot made of a leopard with no ears, a 'Deaf Leopard'.

John Denver
John Henry Deutschendorf adopted the stage surname " Denver " in tribute to the Rocky Mountain area he so cherished.

 

Dire Straits
Their name describes the financial situation they were in when forming the band. They had to hire instruments for their first show, they were in such a bad financial situation.

 

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'. The Doors were originally called the Psychedelic Rangers.

 

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

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.

 

Green Day

1) It may have come from the sci-fi movie Soylent Green when they said "Tuesday is soylent green day." Soylent green was a food produced by a corporation to feed the way overpopulated masses; turns out they were also making it from the masses! 2) Another story is that when they dropped out of school to be musicians, their principal said "It'll be a green day in hell before you make anything of yourselves". 3) Some say that in drug slang - if you smoked pot and goofed off all day, it was a "Green Day."

 

Guns 'n Roses

Originally two bands L.A. GUNNS and HOLLYWOOD ROSES. Hollywood Roses was headed by Axl Rose, Tracii. Guns headed the other band which also featured Slash. The two frequented clubs and played there and were friends. They were often ridiculed for the name as a logo with gun & roses signifies homosexuality.

 

Incubus

One day the guy's were thinking of names and Mike was reading a book that mentioned an Incubus and the band liked it. Later they read a dictionary and found out it means an Evil male spirit that violates sleeping women. An Incubus was supposedly some mythological creature that would come into villages at night and impregnate the women without anybody knowing.

 

Iron Maiden
Named after a medieval torture device. It was a box big enough to admit a man, with folding-doors which were studded with sharp iron spikes. When the doors were closed, these spikes were forced into the body of the victim, who was left there to die in horrible torture. They actually showcased a cartoon depicting the torture device as the cover photo of one of their albums: The X Factor.

 

Jethro Tull
Named after a British farmer from the 1800's who invented the precursor to the modern plow.

Judas Priest
Taken from the Bob Dylan tune "The ballad of Frankie Lee and Judas Priest".

 

Kiss
According to Paul Stanley, Kiss was a momentary inspiration that sounded dangerous and sexy at the same time. Band members deny the rumor that the name stands for 'Knights In Satan's Service'.

Led Zeppelin
The Yardbirds were just wrapping up their final US tour before splitting up. Guitarist Jimmy Page was determined to keep the act going, renaming a new line-up The New Yardbirds. Keith Moon of The Who is rumored to have said "...it'll probably go over like a led zeppelin", thus inspiring the final name change. The 'Led' spelling was to make sure people pronounced the name right.

 

Lynyrd Skynyrd
Named after Robert E. Lee High school gym coach, Leonard Skinner, who punished founding members Gary Rossington and Bob Burns several times for breaking the school's strict dress code, which did not allow boys to have long hair touching the collar or sideburns below the ears. Earlier band names were 'Noble Five' and 'One Percent'.

 

Marilyn Manson

All the members of the band have their stage names taken from one serial killer one movie queen.

Marilyn Manson = Marilyn Monroe (something short of an on screen goddess) + Charles Manson (hippie who along with his 'friends' carried out a number of infamous murders - of well known personalities. I think Roman Polinski was also on their list)

 

Meatloaf
The man with one of the most colorful stage names in show business was born Marvin Lee Aday. Over the years, he has given several different stories on how he got his nickname. The most common one is that he stepped on the foot of his high school football coach, who, instead of cursing, shouted 'Meat Loaf!'.

Metallica
Drummer, Lars Ulrich was helping a friend think of a name for a metal fan magazine. The publication chose 'Metal Mania' and Lars kept Metallica, which was one of the suggestions.

 

Megadeth

Dave Mustane was inspired by a government pamphlet he saw after leaving METALLICA. A Megadeath is a military term for one million dead (making World War II an 80 Megadeath)

 

Motley Crue
The band took their name after a friend remarked, "What a motley looking crew."

 

Motorhead

Lemmy Kilmeister originally wanted to name his band "Bastard" but was advised against it, so he named it after the song he wrote for his old band Hawkwind. "Motorhead" was 70's American slang for someone on speed.

 

Oasis

The band saw a poster advertising in lead singer Liam Gallagher's room about the Inspiral Carpets playing at a club called "The Oasis". The band also learned that the Beatles played their and chose that name. They were originally called "Rain".

 

Pearl Jam
1. According to lead singer, Eddie Vedder, "The name is in reference to the pearl itself... and the natural process from which a pearl comes from. Basically, taking excrement or waste and turning it into something beautiful." 2. Eddie's grandma supposedly made a peyote (hallucinogenic drug) jelly/jam, which as kids they called pearl jam. 3. "Pearl Jam" comes from NBA player Mookie Blaylock -- it's his nickname. Band members Stone Gossard and Jeff Ament were huge fans of Blaylock, loved his peculiar name and wished to just call their band "Mookie Blaylock" but Blaylock protested, so they used his nickname "Pearl Jam" instead.

Pink Floyd
This British band used various names, including "The Meggadeaths", "the T-Set" and "the Screaming Abdabs", before settling on "The Pink Floyd Sound", inspired by American blues artists, Pink Anderson and Floyd Council. The name was later shortened to just Pink Floyd.

 

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

 

RadioHead

Named after a Talking Heads' song called "Radio Head."

 

Rammstein

1. German for 'battering ram', translates literally as "Ramming Stone".

 

R.E.M
'Rapid Eye Movement' is a state of sleep.

 

Rolling Stones
From the Muddy Waters song "Rolling Stone". The name was suggested by guitarist, Brian Jones.

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?".

 

Skid Row

Slang for a rundown inner city neighborhoods where alcoholics, junkies, street people can afford to live.

 

Sepultura

The Brazilian death/heavy metal band Sepultura name is the Portugese/Spanish word for a grave or burial tomb.

 

SoundGarden

A garden of kinetic sculptures that makes music when wind blows through them.

 

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

 

U2
Although the U2 is a type of spy plane that was used by the United States, Bono explained that U2 grew out of thoughts of interactivity with the audience.... as in 'you too.'

 

UB40

Code number of a form people in Britain have to fill out to receive public assistance or welfare. Known in the UK as a signing-off form when you get a job. Hence the title of their first album Signing Off.

Uriah Heep
After using several names during their developing years, manager Gerry Bron suggested "Uriah Heep", based on the 'horrible little character from Charles Dickens' novel, "David Copperfield".

Van Halen

After Alex and Eddie Van Halen - suggested by David Lee Roth as being better than their original name "Mammoth." They might have been called 'Daddy Longlegs' if Gene Simmons of KISS had gotten his way - he partially financed and produced one of their original demo records and suggested names and artwork.

Velvet Underground
The name of an S&M magazine that a band member found on a sidewalk in New York .

 

White Snake

From a white albino ball python snake owned by David Coverdale while in DEEP PURPLE.

 

White Zombie

An old horror "B" movie.

 

WHO
While taking suggestions for a new name, someone noticed that the band members were already so hard of hearing that they kept saying, "The who?"

 

YES
While the group members searched for an appropriate name, guitarist Peter Banks suggested they called the group Yes, a very short and positive word. The others agreed that the name was not meant to be permanent, but just a temporary solution.

 

3 Doors Down

the name came from when one day the band was walking down a street and this door had a piece on wood across the door that said "doors down" and the time there was 3 in the band so they called there band 3 Doors down.