A rose by any other name may smell as sweet, but your favorite band by any other name would have a totally different vibe. A band's name sets the tone for their entire career, so it's not a decision to be taken lightly. Often, the right band name comes to them in the most unusual way.
Here are the stories behind 27 popular band names:
1.While working at Barnes and Noble, Mikey Way saw a book titled Ecstasy: Three Tales of Chemical Romance and thought My Chemical Romance would make a great band name.
2.YG Entertainment wanted Blackpink's name to embody toughness as well as beauty, so they chose a moniker that "aims to contradict the common perception of the color pink."
3.In 2006, a man ran up to Matthew Shultz outside a club and hugged him, repeating, "You have to cage the elephant," and Cage the Elephant was born.
4.When Leigh-Anne Pinnock, Jade Thirwall, Perrie Edwards, and Jesy Nelson first formed a group on The X Factor, they called themselves Rhythmix, but they changed their name to Little Mix after discovering there was a children's charity called Rhythmix.
5.Paramore adopted an early member's mother's maiden name as their band name.
6.BTS stands for the Korean expression "Bangtan Sonyeondan," which translates to "Bulletproof Boy Scouts."
7.While flipping through an old book, the 1975's Matty Healy saw "1st June, The 1975" scribbled on one of the pages.
8.While working at Starbucks, bassist Mike Kroeger (Chad's brother) would often tell his customers, "Here's your nickel back," which inspired the band name Nickelback.
9.Mel C thought the name Touch was "pretty bland" for a girl group, so when they switched management and changed members, Geri Halliwell came up with the Spice Girls.
10.Stray Kids share their name with the TV show that JYP Entertainment created to put together to form a boy band.
11.Panic! at the Disco's name comes from a lyric in "Panic" by Name Taken.
12.At a show, Fall Out Boy asked their audience for band name suggestions, and someone shouted out a minor character from The Simpsons — the sidekick of Homer's favorite superhero.
13.The letters in Loona are a rearrangement of the first consonants in the band's Korean name, "Idarui Sonyeo," which translates to "Girl of the Month."
14.Liam Payne originally wanted to call his boy band USP (Unique Selling Point), but when the other members shot his idea down, Harry Styles suggested One Direction, which just stuck.
15.The name Migos stems from the Spanish word amigo.
16.Pink Floyd originally called themselves the Tea Set, but when they saw another band playing under that name, they decided to change theirs to reflect two of their musical inspirations — Pinkney Anderson and Floyd Council.
17.When Brian Jones was asked to suggest a band name, he looked down at a record for inspiration — Rollin’ Stones by Muddy Waters.
18.Peter Green titled a song "Fleetwood Mac" after fellow bandmates Mick Fleetwood and John McVie, then he decided it would make a stellar band name.
19.Stuart Sutcliffe suggested the name "Beatals" as a play on Buddy Holly and the Crickets, but as the band's membership changed, its name evolved into the Silver Beetles then finally the Beatles.
20.Jimmy Page told Keith Moon, Jeff Beck, and John Entwistle that if they created a supergroup, it would go down "like a lead balloon" — and a Zeppelin is the biggest balloon of all.
21.When a critic dismissed their music as "daft punk trash," Darlin' changed their name to Daft Punk.
22.Between his freshman and sophomore years of college, Ezra Koenig worked on a short film called Vampire Weekend, a title he later used for his band's name.
23.The name 30 Seconds to Mars comes from a former Harvard professor's thesis about the exponential growth of technology in relation to humanity.
24.Chvrches replaced the "u" in their name with a "v" so that Google wouldn't confuse the band with church buildings in the search results.
25.Bastille is named after the French holiday Bastille Day, which is also frontman Dan Smith's birthday.
26.After people kept mishearing Foster and the People's name as "Foster the People," they decided to just go with it.
27.And finally, Bring Me the Horizon's name comes from a Jack Sparrow quote in Pirates of the Caribbean.
