Top 10 Bands with the Most Interesting Band Name Etymologies
Band Name Etymology is how the bands got their names, how they came up with their names.
Two friends and aspiring musicians, Steven Page and Ed Robertson, were bored at a Bob Dylan concert and turned to amusing each other by making up fictional band names, one of which was Barenaked Ladies.
Ed had a band that was supposed to perform in a battle of bands but his band broke up and he forgot about the gig. A week before the show he got a phone call and was asked to confirm the gig. He improvised that the band name had changed to "Barenaked Ladies", recalling it from the Dylan concert. He then called Steven and asked if he wanted to do the gig - Steven agreed but couldn't believe Ed had given that name.
To prepare for the gig they arranged 3 rehearsals and missed them all. Nevertheless, the two played the show but instead of competing, they played while the other bands set up, playing every song they could think of that they both knew. Surprisingly, the show went well and they continued as Barenaked Ladies and invited more musicians.

Led Zeppelin refers to the Hindenburg disaster and originated from a joke made by Keith Moon and John Entwistle, members of The Who. The two were discussing the idea of forming a supergroup containing themselves, Jimmy Page, and Jeff Beck.
Moon and Entwistle thought that such a band would go down like a "lead balloon" (a British idiom for disastrous results). The name was misspelled intentionally to ensure correct pronunciation by announcers.

Malcolm and Angus Young's sister saw AC / DC on an electric sewing machine, and said "why not AC/DC".
311 is the police code for indecent exposure in Omaha, Nebraska.
One day bassist P-Nut and some friends went skinny dipping in a public pool. The police arrested one the friends, Jim Watson - he was cuffed (naked) and taken home to his parents.
The band found the incident amusing, so they based their name on it.

Comes from the band's financial situation at the time of forming.


They released their debut album “Killing Is My Business...And Business Is Good!” in 1985, but became successful after the release of “Peace Sells...But Who’s Buying?” in 1986. ...read more.
Mustaine got kicked out of Metallica and was traveling on a bus - to pass the time he started writing lyrics on the back of a handbill. The handbill itself quoted "The arsenal of megadeath can't be rid no matter what the peace treaties come to".
This inspired him to use Megadeath as his band name but he dropped the 'A' in 'Death'.
Fun fact:
one of the former band names for Pink Floyd was "The Meggadeaths".

The band became mainstream after improving after their debut album got panned. In 1978, Osbourne was fired and replaced with former Rainbow vocalist Ronnie James Dio. Who went to release 2 albums before leaving in 1983, only for Osbourne to return in 1992. ...read more.
Originally their name was Earth but there was another group with the same name and they had to change the name. One day they saw a cinema playing a film titled Black Sabbath. They couldn't believe people paid money to be frightened. But decided to use Black Sabbath.

Originally they were "Sweet Children" until Billie Joe Armstrong wrote a song called "Green Day" - "Green day" is a slang for spending a day smoking marijuana and the song was about Joe's first experience with the drug.

Lead singer Cameron Bird came up with this name by cutting up words out of a newspaper and rearranging them on a table until something jumped out at him.
Rumor has it drummer Chris Daly saw it on a poster in Audrey Hepburn film Breakfast at Tiffany's.

When Brian Jones was on the phone with Jazz News magazine, the man on the phone asked him what the band's name was. Brian realized that they didn't have a name, so he looked around the room for inspiration and saw a Muddy Waters LP lying on the floor. One of the songs was called "Rollin' Stone", so he told the guy that they were the Rollin' Stones (the "g" was added soon after). I have always found it interesting that something that was originally meant to be a placeholder ended up sticking in the public conciousness and becoming one of the most recognizable band names.