List of best band name origin stories, crowd-sourced and ranked by a community of music-lovers. Bands are known to find inspiration for their names from all sorts of places: negative reviews, real people like old teachers that they hated, lost loves, real places and fictional sex toys.
A good band name origins story is always entertaining--it can inspire you if you are searching for your own perfect rock group name or arm you with a good anecdote to tell at cocktail parties. How many people do you know who are aware that Steely Dan named their outfit after a steam-powered dildo mentioned in a William S. Burroughs novel?
The best band names origin stories are about a band that you know and love, but never thought to look into how they got their name. For example, there are probably many Muse fans out there that never knew that Matthew Bellamy, the lead vocalist, is really into Ouija boards and supernatural beings, aka "muses." Read up on some of the best origins of band names and add your own favorites to the list!
http://www.ranker.com/list/best-band-name-origins-stories/ranker-music,
Blur
Coming on to the scene in the wake of the Stone Roses, "Seymour" joined the grand British pop tradition defined by the likes of the Kinks, the Who and the Smiths. Wait, who is Seymour?
Seymour was the initial name of the influential rock band Blur...before they were asked to change it by their record label in 1990. At the time that they signed the band, a couple of execs from Food Records provided a pre-approved list of names that they band could use. It appears as if it is merely by chance that Blur ended up with their now well-known moniker. Had they picked from a different part of the list, they could have just as easily been "Blue" or "Burn."
Daft Punk
In the early '90s, heavily influenced by The Beach Boys, Daft Punk recorded songs under the name Darlin', a nod to a Beach Boys single off their 1967 album Wild Honey. One negative review in the UK's Melody Maker described their effort as "a daft punky thrash," which first depressed the pair and then sparked the inspiration for their next project.
Depeche Mode
The name Depeche Mode translates to "Fashion Dispatch" in French, which they borrowed from a French fashion magazine of the same title.
Dexys Midnight Runners
Dexys Midnight Runners sang the song, "Come on Eileen," the crown jewel of every 80s compilation mix CD ever.
They named the band "Dexy" after Dexedrine, a weight loss/recreational drug that was popular in the 1980s for its speed-like effects. The "midnight runners" referred to the incredible energy that the Dexedrine gave "some" people who took the drug (not the members of the band though, they insist that they aren't into that stuff).
Fall Out Boy
Pete Wentz's pop punk band played without a name for their first two shows. At the end of their second show they asked the audience to yell out their ideas for a name. One audience member suggested "Fallout Boy," a reference to the sidekick of the Radioactive Man from The Simpsons. Fallout Boy they became.
Led Zeppelin
Led Zeppelin was a legendary British rock band who dominated the music scene in the 70s with heavy, guitar-driven sounds.
The phrase "lead balloon" is a commonly used idiom to describe an ill-conceived idea, or one whose failure is both predictable and inevitable. The name then allegedly arose when Keith Moon, after being invited to drum for the band, suggested that the idea would go over like a "lead zeppelin"--Moon evidently modifying the common phrase to exaggerate its humor. Jimmy Page liked the phrase so much, he took it for the band's name. The decision to misspell it was made because they thought Americans who were not as familiar with the original phrase would mispronounce the word as "leed."
Lynyrd Skynyrd
Lynyrd Skynyrd is a mocking tribute to Leonard Skinner, a gym teacher at Robert E. Lee High School in Jacksonville, FL who was notorious for strictly enforcing the school's policy against boys having long hair.
Skinner rousted the boys so much that Gary Rossington ended up dropping out of high school because he was "tired of being hassled about his hair."
Years later, realizing that the long-haired boys he tormented were richer and more successful than he, Leonard Skinner got over being an asshole and made nice with the band, introducing them at a concert in the Jacksonville Memorial Coliseum and allowing them to use a photo of his Leonard Skinner Realty sign for the inside of their third album.
Muse
Apparently when Muse's Matthew Bellamy was a kid, he liked to play with Ouiji boards. In interviews, Bellamy has discussed how the mystical toys helped him communicate with dead people and figure out how to get laid. He has also stated that a Ouiji board helped him predict the first Gulf War a year before it started. Oh! Also, once, in 2006, Bellamy insisted that his press interviews all be conducted in a helicopter because he had a premonition that a meteorite was going to hit NYC and cause a tsunami that would wipe out the entire east coast. So, yeah, supernatural stuff is his thing.
The band adopted the name Muse when someone from their small hometown, Teignmouth, England suggested that the relatively large amount of people from their town who grew up to be professional musicians could be attributed to a "muse hovering over the town." Bellamy, with his Ouiji board sensibilities, hung on to that thought and suggested that the band call themselves Muse.
Foster the People
Frontman Mark Foster originally called the band "Foster & the People" until his friends couldn't remember it and/or misunderstood what he was saying. He took the name that they all thought he was saying, "Foster the People," and ran with it--citing the fact that the first few shows that they played were for charities and Foster the People evoked the idea of taking care of the people.
Childish Gambino
Musicians who are struggling to think of the perfect name may turn to any sort of thing for inspiration (as evidenced by the rest of this list.) Donald Glover found his perfect stage name from the online Wu-Tang Clan name generator.