9 Ways to Help You Pick The Best Band Name
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- musicians blog
- Updated: 29th September 2022
Choosing a catchy name, easy to search for online and looks great on a t-shirt can be quite a challenge when you don't know where to begin - but we have a few valuable tips to get you started.
Despite what punk rockers No Use for a Name would have you believe, choosing the right name is one of the most critical early steps your band must take. Your band's name is its identity and, as such, is what your future fans will most closely associate with you, so it's essential to get it right.
To 'sum' it up, a good band name needs to be:
- Suitable
- Unique
- Memorable
By 'suitable', we mean your name has to fit your musical style; otherwise, the acoustic folk fans will be shocked when they turn up to see 'First Leaves of Spring' only to find out that they play hardcore punk.
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Also, make sure your band name isn't accidentally offensive. If your band name has an unusual word, type it into an online translator to ensure it doesn't mean something rude in another language.
A 'unique' band name will reduce the chances of your fans confusing you with another band. If you play a similar style of music as a group of other artists, a unique name will help your band to stand out from the crowd.
Also, if your band name shares a word with another band, adding another word to it or changing the spelling will help distinguish you from the rest.
The most 'memorable' band names are easy to read, which will come in handy when you design your logo for your social media and merchandise.
Memorable names are also easy to say, which will help your fanbase grow via word-of-mouth. Plus, words that trip nicely off the tongue are also easier for your fans to chant at your shows!
Make sure you can check off each of these qualities as you consider each name your band suggests for itself. If the name checks out and it's available for you to use, then it's good to go!
But before we begin…
1. Band name generator (yes or no?)
Could it really be this easy? Is the perfect band name just one click of a button away?
The short answer is: no.
Most online name generators will throw together random groups of words, giving you list after list of nonsense phrases. Although this can be entertaining at first, there are only so many 'Piano the Dennis’-es and 'Thumb Baldness’-es that you can scroll through before you start to think you'd be better off coming up with a name yourself (they're both results from real generators, by the way!).
While Childish Gambino and Post Malone famously struck gold when using name generators, you'd be hard-pressed to find many other success stories from artists who went down this route.
By all means, try a band name generator or two out - a few of them, such as Chosic and Zing Instruments, allow you to filter results by musical genre. So, with online tools like these, you might be lucky enough to generate a name that suits your style.
Overall, we'd say only use online name generators, as Papa Roach would say, as a last resort. As a side-note, Papa Roach named themselves after their singer's step-grandfather!
Now let's look at other sources of inspiration that will bring you closer and closer to finding your perfect band name.
2. Nicknames
A great way of picking a name with which you have a personal connection, which also stands a good chance of being unique, is to use a nickname.
If a member of your band had an unusual nickname growing up, or even if that name belonged not to you but someone you know or used to know, make a note of it and see if it suits your band.
Frontman Rivers Cuomo was nicknamed 'Weezer' due to his childhood asthma, Charli XCX was once an MSN Messenger screen name, and Beabadoobee used that name for her Fintsa, or 'fake Instagram', account.
Or, if one of you happens to have a Bon Jovi- or Van Halen-level surname that just happens to sound awesome, try that out for size. Unfortunately, 'the Smiths' is already taken.
Just make sure that the band members who don't share that name are happy with the decision - and that the members who do aren't going to take the name with them when they leave!
3. Landmarks and Placenames
Many bands and artists like to take inspiration from their surroundings, whether the school or college where they met or the hometown where they grew up. A place that has meaning to you could work well.
Most big city names like Boston and Chicago, or even bigger continent names like Europe and Asia, have been taken. However, if you or your band was born in a place with a more unusual and less famous name (we're looking at you, Portishead and East 17!), check if another band has spotted it and swiped it for themselves - if not, it could be the name for you.
If you want to drill down even deeper, you could even name yourself after a street, whether it be real (as in Sleater-Kinney, a street in Lacey, Washington) or a TV show (as in Evergreen Terrace, a street from the Simpsons). As long as the place means something to you, it might just give you the inspiration you need.
4. Famous Books and Characters
If you're a keen reader, you could join the ranks of Of Mice & Men and As I Lay Dying, and name your band after a book you love. However, remember that you might create internet search problems if you don't change a few things about the name.
Other bands name themselves after characters, like the band Veruca Salt taking their name from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Flyte taking inspiration from Brideshead Revisited, and the Boo Radleys taking theirs from To Kill a Mockingbird.
Don't just limit yourself to novels, either: Avenged Sevenfold took their name from a passage in the Bible, whereas the Maccabees just flicked through it until they found a word they liked the look of. Alkaline Trio and Ash did a similar thing with the dictionary - although neither band needed to read past chapter A.
If you're more of a film buff, there are several bands named after classic movies and TV shows - Goldfinger, They Might Be Giants and Gojira are all both bands and films - but again, think about changing the wording or spelling so you don't have to compete with the actual movie or TV show online.
5. Animals
Have you ever taken a quiz to find out what your spirit animal is? It might help you pick your band name!
For thousands of years, animals have been used to represent different human qualities - a brave lion, a wise old owl, a frightened little mouse - and that trend is alive and well today. You can see this in the imagery and lyrics and the band names used for certain types of music.
Cute woodland animals like squirrels and hedgehogs are more at home on the cover of an indie or folk album, genres that gave us such hits as 'Rabbit Heart' and 'The Love Cats'.
Whereas fearsome mythical creatures like sea serpents and dragons are more likely to appear on the leather jackets of rock and metal fans, genres spawned such anthems as 'Eye of the Tiger' and 'The Number of the Beast'.
Once you've settled on a clear musical direction, see if any animals capture the same mood - and see if you can create a unique band name by combining that animal with another exciting word.
In the sixties, there was a massive boom of animal-themed band names: the Byrds, the Turtles, and, of course, the Animals. Since most single-word animal names will likely have been used up by now, bands combine animals with other words, like Tame Impala, Wolf Alice and Snarky Puppy.
6. Create a Word Bank
Create a long list or mind map of words that inspire you and relate to your genre of music - you can add any books, movies and animals you've already thought of to this list. This will give you a bank of useful words which you can combine in different ways - and, once you've settled on a band name, you can mine your list for lyrics.
Many bands take their names from a song title or a lyric from a band that influenced them. 'Radiohead' is the title of a Talking Heads song, and Queen's 'Radio Ga Ga' later inspired the Lady of the same name.
You can do this, too - look through the titles of songs by bands that you share a similar style with. Flick through their discography on a streaming service like Spotify or Apple Music, or dig through your vinyl collection and write down all the words from the tracklists that sound interesting or fit the themes you want your band to sing about.
Some genres of music are known for sticking to certain lyrical themes, and the names of the bands that belong to those genres reflect these themes too. You'd expect a heavy metal band called Black Sabbath to sing about witches gathering in their masses, just as you'd expect a folk band called Fleet Foxes to sing about pallid animals in the snow-tipped pines.
To get you started, here are a few popular genres of music with some common words you might hear in the songs that belong to them:
Pop Punk
- break up
- heartache
- skate
- partying
- girlfriend
Metal
- evil
- demon
- suffer
- damnation
- hatred
Folk
- autumn
- blossom
- meadow
- lamb
- flowing
Jazz
- swing
- cats
- cool
- grooving
- scat
Pop
- love
- beautiful
- beginning
- forever
- believe
From a list such as this, you could put together a convincing pop punk band name like 'Heartache Party' or 'Skate Breakup'; equally, you can come up with a name for your jazz trio by putting together words like 'the Swing Grooves' or 'the Cool Cats'.
TIPCreate a list on your smartphone or another portable device so you can add to it wherever you go. You never know when or where inspiration might strike!
7. Mixing and Matching
There are a few interesting techniques to help you create brand new words you can use for a band name that's unlikely to have been thought of already.
The first is combining two words to create a 'compound'. You can take a first word that describes the second, like 'Whitesnake', or, for a different effect, take two words that clash, like 'Mudhoney'. Famous compounds you will be familiar with include:
- Foot + path = footpath
- Jelly + fish = jellyfish
- Down + town = downtown
Bands and artists whose names are compounds include:
- Soundgarden
- Wolfmother
- OneRepublic
The second is to take half of one word or phrase and half of another to create a 'portmanteau'. These are easier to put together if the end of the first word and the start of the second word have a letter or two in common or if the end of the first phrase is the same as the beginning of the next phrase. Famous examples that have fallen into everyday use include:
- Breakfast + lunch = brunch
- Motor + hotel = motel
- Guess + estimate = guesstimate
Bands and artists whose names are portmanteaus include:
- Japandroids
- Camper Van Beethoven
- Brian Jonestown Massacre
A third technique is to swap the first letters or syllables of two or more words around, creating a 'spoonerism'. Spoonerisms aren't as common in everyday speech, they're usually the result of a mistake - but they're a popular way of making jokes among comedians and writers:
- Beeping Sleauty (Sleeping Beauty)
- I've only had tee martoonies (two martinis)
- It's kisstomary to cuss the bride (customary to kiss)
Bands and artists whose names are spoonerisms include:
- Buckcherry
- Com Truise
- Dack Janiels
You can use other types of wordplay to make a memorable band name. Alliteration, as used by the Beastie Boys, Jessie J and Herman's Hermits, makes a name instantly easier to remember.
8. Misspellings
Especially if you're naming your band after a common, everyday thing, like 'sandwiches', consider changing the spelling so that when your fans search for you, they won't have to sift through results about actual sandwiches.
Depending on how you change the spelling of that word, you might even be able to add some meaning to your name - for example, you could add a sprinkle of magic dust to your band by naming yourself the 'Sand Witches'.
Many successful bands have changed the meaning of their band names by playing with the spelling. This works incredibly well if you change part of the word to mean something about your band.
Swapping an 'e' from the word 'beetles' for an 'a' gives the new spelling of 'Beat-les' some extra-musical meaning. Although swapping the 'y' from the word 'monkeys' for an 'e' means that 'the Monkees' no longer had 'key' in their name, the spelling is still unique.
You do need to be careful, when you're playing around with different spellings of words, that your fans are still able to pronounce your band name the way you want them to - many confused fans pronounced the '5' in 'deadmau5' and the 'v' in 'CHVRCHES'.
On the flip side, if you've chosen a name that people could pronounce incorrectly even when it's spelt the usual way, you could change the spelling to ensure there's no misunderstanding. Led Zeppelin famously did this, fearing their fans might think they were called 'Leed Zeppelin' - although we doubt there was any danger of people making a similar mistake with 'Deef Leppard'!
9. Acronyms
If you choose a band name that's more of a phrase than a word, you might be tempted to shorten it to its initials. Nine Inch Nails is a good example of a band best recognised by its 'NIN' logo.
You might want to take this one step further and choose a band name whose initials can be pronounced as a word. ABBA took the first letter of each member's first name while NSYNC took the last, and HIM is an acronym for 'His Infernal Majesty'.
Fans have long suspected that some band names, such as KISS, stand for secret sayings, such as 'Knights in Satan's Service' or 'Keep it Simple, Stupid' - although the band themselves have denied this. Still, making an acronym but not revealing what the letters stand for is a clever way to get people talking about your band!
Excuse me, is this name taken?
Before you get your hearts set on your brilliant new band name, check that it's available for you to use. Things will get trickier for you further down the line if you release any music under a name already claimed by another band. Blink-182 famously had to add the 182 - after they'd already had an album out - to avoid being sued by an Irish band called Blink.
Even if the band that got there first isn't internationally famous, it will be confusing for your fans if they get results for multiple bands when they search for you on the internet. Also, the other band wouldn't appreciate it if they found out you were using their name and might even try to get you to drop it!
Check the name's availability by searching for it on Google, Spotify, other streaming platforms, and social media. It's also worth searching for your band name in a trademark database.
Don't just be on the lookout for competing bands; products, brands, businesses and more all want to find a unique name too. Remember: if Marshall' Eminem' Mathers had just gone by his initials, his fans would keep getting search results about 'M&Ms' the chocolate!
All in favour say "aye"
It's just as important that everyone in your band is happy with the name you choose as it is for the name to be available to use. Remember: you're all in this together, and a band is only as good as its members.
Because your band is a group, it's best to treat the choice of your band name as a group activity. Get everyone to contribute to your ongoing list or mindmap, and have regular chats, so you know what each member thinks.
It can take a while to settle on something as important as a name that defines a whole group of musicians, and if it's taking a while, somebody's got to take action. Draw up a shortlist of 5 or 10 of your favourite band name ideas, and put them to a vote, letting the majority decide the winner.
Just remember: it's OK to change your band name later.
Despite their success, some bands, such as Foo Fighters, My Bloody Valentine, Arctic Monkeys and Smashing Pumpkins, have stated that they don't like their band names but have stuck with them regardless.
By the time you've been a global megastar for 20 years, it might be a bit late to abandon the name that's sold you millions of records and gained you millions of fans.
But, even if you've been trying to get your band off the ground for several years without much success, a new band name might be just the change you need. Whether it's more suitable, more unique or memorable, your new name could be the key to getting your band's recognition.
