A bit OT: how to choose a band name

[mauriziodececco]

Well, in Jazz people is not used to band names; but if you want a web site, a facebook page or something, you need to have a name or something.

 

So, where you do you find your band names ? Tips and tricks ?

 

Maurizio

[MAJUSCULE]

Duh

 

[Bif_]

Use your middle name and the street you grew up on. Mine would be Lee Hickory.

 

Oh wait, that's how you create your porn star name.

[Barryjam]

In the internet era, make sure it is something searchers can spell correctly. My cover band, RamFunkshus, baffles people trying to spell it. We've been around since 1998 so it isn't such a problem, but who knows how many bookings we may have lost because the spelling isn't obvious.

[Baldwin Funster]

Your first dogs name and the misspelled name of your high school gym teacher.

Or,

Your favorite porn star and favorite Baskin Robbins ice cream.

 

That would get me CleoArmstronge or Lexi-Mintchip.

 

You can use those if you want.

[mate stubb]

In my last band we wrote several pages of suggestions down, and could not agree on any of them. So we took turns eliminating a name from the list until 1 was left.

[Lindaru]

Duh

 

 

I just got renamed to "Mad Madman".

 

 

[Lindaru]

Use your middle name and the street you grew up on. Mine would be Lee Hickory.

 

Oh wait, that's how you create your porn star name.

 

Using your formula, I am Ruth Silver.

 

 

[xKnuckles]

Your Star Wars First Name:

 

1. Take the first 3 letters of your last name.

2. Add to that, the first 2 letters of your first name.

 

Your Star Wars Last Name:

 

1. Take the first 2 letters of your mother's maiden name.

2. Add the first 3 letters of the name of the town in which you were born.

 

This is your Star Wars name!

 

May the force be with you.

 

Knuxx Nabal

[MAJUSCULE]

<-- Douer Baqué on Tatooine.

[RudyS]

Your Star Wars First Name:

 

1. Take the first 3 letters of your last name.

2. Add to that, the first 2 letters of your first name.

 

Your Star Wars Last Name:

 

1. Take the first 2 letters of your mother's maiden name.

2. Add the first 3 letters of the name of the town in which you were born.

 

This is your Star Wars name!

 

May the force be with you.

 

Knuxx Nabal

 

Schru Vegro..... I don't know about this one.

[CowboyNQ]

So, where you do you find your band names ? Tips and tricks ?

 

I'm in three bands:

 

1. Is a tribute, so that narrows things down somewhat

2. The name is a bit of an "in joke" which relates to something that one of our former managers kept banging on about

3. The name of this band is pretty dumb as we couldn't think of a name so we just plumped with the next thing someone said.

 

The good news is bands become their name after a while and you can get used to anything.

 

I never thought "U2" or "Coldplay" were really great band names, doesn't seem to have held them back at all.

 

I'm sure there's an app(s) for this sort of thing, similar to the Wu-Tang link posted above.

 

Hope that helps,

 

Roger Hinton (porn name - the formula we used as young silly blokes was the name of your first pet plus the street you grew up on)

Binpa Oradl (Star Wars name - I like that, thanks Anne)

 

[Lindaru]

Star Wars name - Irwli Ruden.

 

Porn name - Nosy Silver.

 

This is getting more interesting!

 

My first band "Critical Fold" was given by the band leader and refers to the intricacies of origami.

 

"The Shift" was kind of a last choice after we had ruled out all of the other new age names since research showed other bands nabbed those first.

 

Now with the radio thing going and the music related to that, "Awesome Insanity Surfers Band" came from my partner "Awesome Dawson" as he is known, Insanity for the craziness of our comedy and Surfers for people surfing the internet to find stuff to entertain them. We are still collecting potential members for that but it will be a group of people collaborating on line to create music to hopefully sell in the future.

 

 

[Stokely]

In my last band we wrote several pages of suggestions down, and could not agree on any of them. So we took turns eliminating a name from the list until 1 was left.

 

This has been my experience several times. People bring in their lists--one band had every person bring at least 30 names--and then everyone ****s all over them in passionate fashion. If you do get 4/5 to agree, that last person will say that the name is the *one* that they hate the most, and that they'd quit the band over.

 

Ugh. Double ugh. I've gotten to where I don't care, as long as it's not actively offensive.

 

I will say that coming up with names for original bands is much easier for me than "appropriate" cover band names. By that I mean that cover band names typically are shooting for "don't drive people away before they see you" and tend to be more generic and safe. "Cheap Trick" would be a perfect cover band name, too bad a darn original band took it! In college I was in "Silent Partner" and "Via Satellite" for instance....Conversely, "Toad the Wet Sprocket" up on the sign outside a bar is going to confuse people.

 

Don't pick "Live", it's really hard to find band videos

[Joe Muscara]

I've come up with great band names no one used.

 

For a horn project that was going to cover stuff like ToP, Chicago, BS&T, etc., the guy that started it and a big Chicago fan was named John Reno. I suggested we call it "Reno Transit Authority."

 

The band leader of the blues band I'm in goes by Dooley James. My idea was to call ourselves "The Dooley James Gang."

 

[David Emm]

There was once an unmoderated 'band name' site that very quickly turned into a typical morass of Net morons, but I saved a few of the better ideas before deleting the bookmark for Excess Scatology.

 

I got a good laugh out of these:

 

Emerson, Lake & Sasquatch

Tom Petty Theft & a Few Felonies

Fifty Pounds of Funk In A Ten-Pound Ass

V For Velveeta

Leadfoot Louie & the Moving Violations

Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Hitler

Papertrained And Everything

 

The cherry on it: those names could fit any one of several styles.

[richforman]

In the 80's I came up with two what I thought were good band names that never got used, I'll offer them up here, Idle Hands, and Cooler Heads.

[hurricane hugo]

There's a long thread of possible band names over at the Bass Player forum on this site.

[ABECK]

Dave Grohl has said that if he thought the Foo Fighters were going to be at all successful, he never would have chosen that name. So, you see, it doesn't matter. You become the name.

 

[J. Dan]

There are many schools of thought. I've always taken the "theme band" approach even if it isn't one. I believe that you have to think beyond the name and come up with an entire marketing plan. When somebody hears the name, they should immediately know what you are without any other info. You should come up with a logo that reinforces that. Your web site color scheme and style as well as clothing should immediately scream who you are, si that when somebody unknowingly walks in and sees you, they assume "that's ______". Easier said than done, of course, but if you can swing it, it'll pay in spades.

[Threadslayer]

Dave Grohl has said that if he thought the Foo Fighters were going to be at all successful, he never would have chosen that name. So, you see, it doesn't matter. You become the name.

I've wondered about that. It's always seemed like a frivolous, one-off name for a pick up gig rather than a descriptive or marketable name choice.

[CEB]

Hugo is right. The band makes the name. I have played in successful bands with some terrible names.

 

Something I take into consideration now is how does the name look as a graphical image. One name we considered for Pop band was Pop Thatt or Pop Phatt. I didn't care for the names but I liked how the double TTs looked grapically. But another consideration is will unorthodox spelling make it harder to correctly enter into seach engines or social media sites.

[Joe Muscara]

Dave Grohl has said that if he thought the Foo Fighters were going to be at all successful, he never would have chosen that name. So, you see, it doesn't matter. You become the name.

I've wondered about that. It's always seemed like a frivolous, one-off name for a pick up gig rather than a descriptive or marketable name choice.

"Grohl hoped to keep his anonymity and release the recordings in a limited run under the title "Foo Fighters", taken from the World War II term "foo fighter", used to refer to unidentified flying objects."

[CEB]

You can try Buster Hymen and the Penetrators.

[KenElevenShadows]

Dave Grohl has said that if he thought the Foo Fighters were going to be at all successful, he never would have chosen that name. So, you see, it doesn't matter. You become the name.

I've wondered about that. It's always seemed like a frivolous, one-off name for a pick up gig rather than a descriptive or marketable name choice.

"Grohl hoped to keep his anonymity and release the recordings in a limited run under the title "Foo Fighters", taken from the World War II term "foo fighter", used to refer to unidentified flying objects."

 

I always liked their name, personally.

 

One of the dumbest names of all time for an enormously successful band has got to be INXS, so yeah, it might be true that it's really the band in the end.

[richforman]

Veering off the topic but I always heard the name of (the late great) Bernie Worrell's funk fusion band Woo Warriors as a spoof on Foo Fighters, no idea if they meant it that way. My theory depends on FF having come out first and I think they did.

[El Lobo]

Bands I've been in or am in now:

The Novells (early 60's name)

The Cannons (later 60's name -"the booming sound of the Cannons")

The Bearded Clam (very short-lived 70's name, may have been 1 night only)

The Martians (70's free rock-jazz)

Dr. Woo Woo (80's new wave, reference to Steely Dan "are you with me Dr. Wu?")

Montara (80's jazz funk, name of a town on the coast south of San Francisco)

Tom Heavy (90's rock - so named because there were 2 Toms in the band so it was Tom Heavy)

Wall Of Blues (2002 to present, long-running band, so named because originally it was a wall of 7 players, now it's down to 5)

Heaters (New Orleans R&B, it turns out there are lots of bands named the Heaters, google your band name before you finalize it)

Jim Moore Band (named after the band leader, this is a simple solution)

ZAP The Show (another band name chosen by the band leader)

Pacific Rock (band put together to only do benefits. We do it for fun but it's the best band name of them all)

 

[theGman]

Since I am of the mindset to not re-invent the wheel, the last time I chose a band name or, in my case, a store name, was to

look across the country (for me in Virginia, that meant Cal, Oregon, Wash, Nevada etc.)

 

find one or three I liked, then search locally/regionally/statewide area to see if that name was being used. If nobody within say 300+ miles? I would consider it. Bonus is that you might even get logo ideas if they had one to view.

[Joe Muscara]

I've wondered about that. It's always seemed like a frivolous, one-off name for a pick up gig rather than a descriptive or marketable name choice.

"Grohl hoped to keep his anonymity and release the recordings in a limited run under the title "Foo Fighters", taken from the World War II term "foo fighter", used to refer to unidentified flying objects."

 

I always liked their name, personally.

 

One of the dumbest names of all time for an enormously successful band has got to be INXS, so yeah, it might be true that it's really the band in the end.

I think INXS was fine, but there were too many letter-name bands in the 80s - U2, INXS, XTC, etc.

 

I think the dumbest name might be the Goo Goo Dolls.

 

"The trio picked their name from a True Detective ad for a toy called a Goo Goo Doll.[10] "We were young and we were a garage band not trying to get a deal. We had a gig that night and needed a name. It's the best we came up with, and for some reason it stuck. If I had five more minutes, I definitely would have picked a better name," John stated. "

[Stokely]

The dumbest name I can think of is Hoobastank...with a second-place finish by Garbage.