“Roses ‘N Guns” just didn’t have the same ring to it.

Source: en.wikipedia.org

Perhaps proof that Wikipedia is a fantastic resource for compiling information that you probably wouldn’t find collated elsewhere, this list of the origins of the names of famous bands entertained me for a good 10 minutes today. I knew that Steely Dan were named after a dildo, and that the Pogues were originally named Pogue Mahone (Gaelic for “kiss my ass”), but some of the other etymologies are really rather interesting…

Some of my favourites:

Bay City Rollers — from Bay City, Michigan, which had been randomly selected by the band from a map.

Beastie Boys — According to frontman Mike D., BEASTIE stands for Boys Entering Anarchistic Stages Towards Internal Excellence.

Faith No More — Named after a race horse they saw listed on a racing form.

Led Zeppelin — Jimmy Page was drinking with The Who’s Drummer Keith Moon and Bassist John Entwhistle, who were complaining about their band mates Roger Daltrey and Pete Townshend. They joked about the two of them starting a band with Jimmy, and Keith Moon said “Yeah, that will go over like a lead zeppelin”. When Jimmy formed his own band, he remembered this and thought “Lead Zeppelin” would be good, both from that conversation and the heavy/light contradiction similar to the band named Iron Butterfly. They decided to drop the “a” so Americans wouldn’t mispronounce it.

Lynyrd Skynyrd — They were named after Leonard Skinner, a gym teacher at Robert E. Lee High School who was notorious for strictly enforcing the school’s policy against boys having long hair.

Queen — Were originally called Smile. Singer Freddie Mercury came up with the new name for the band, later saying: “Years ago I thought up the name ‘Queen’ … It’s just a name, but it’s very regal obviously, and it sounds splendid … It’s a strong name, very universal and immediate. It had a lot of visual potential and was open to all sorts of interpretations. I was certainly aware of gay connotations, but that was just one face of it.”

The Velvet Underground — Were named after a book about sadomasochism by Michael Leigh.