Remember the song "1985" by Bowling for Soup? Great song, right? Better band name. The type of name that a person remembers. You might not remember the name of the song, but you remember the band name, which makes you remember the song. This is what happened to me, and it got me thinking about what it takes to make a great band name. They should be memorable, yet simple. Using your own name can be tricky, as it is only remembered if you make it big (i.e., Hanson, Dave Matthews Band).
Here's some suggestions on how to create a good band name. Use one of these strategies. Or a combo, I don't care.
One part verb, One part noun, low correlation
When things don't normally go together, they sound cool. Rusted Root, Bowling for Soup, Canned Heat. It's straying from the norm that gets you famous. Ask Lorde or Gaga.
Honorable mention to Dying Fetus, just because.
A relatively peaceful animal paired with an atypical action
Trampled by Turtles, Mimicking Birds, Counting Crows, Imagine Dragons. My Xbox Live name is Mauling Zebras. It works. It's awesome.
Honorable mention to "Burning Hotels".
The name of a person and something random, low correlation
Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Hootie and the Blowfish, Margot and the Nuclear So and Sos. You see a theme yet? When the "consumer" thinks "those two things don't make sense together," they start putting the two together. What's a Magnetic Zero? I don't know but Home is one of the greatest songs of all time.
The issue with these names is that they can become a mouthful to say, but they create enough of a uniqueness to become a great band name.
Honorable mention to "Fountains of Wayne" here, because, let's be real, Stacy's Mom has got it going on.
Play on words
Fitz and the Tantrums, Eminem, The Lonely Island, Dilated Peoples. A name in which you say, "I see what you did there" can go a long way. The band instantly becomes respected in my opinion. They are clever, they get it.
Honorable mention to Queen here.
Random Words
Incubus, Evanescence, and Outkast used this method. Pick up a dictionary. Open to a page. Point down. Easy as that. Or use a random word generator because who has a dictionary these days? I just went on a random generator and got "River Appetite." We'd probably do metal.
Frankly, the words together just sound cool
Miniature Tigers, Shakey Graves, Elephant Revival, Great Good Fine OK. This goes with the last trait. Samuel Beam came up with Iron & Wine when he saw a dietary supplement in a grocery store and said, "Hey that's a cool name, I should use that."
Don't make it too difficult to spell or pronounce
In a band's defense, they could be memorable because of how much time you took when trying to figure out the name, Honestly, does anyone know how to correctly pronounce Hozier? Just because it's your name and you are exactly 3 months older than me doesn't mean it was the right name to use.
Here's my loudogggg approved list of great band names. Patents pending.
The Cedar Salads
Inflatable Guacamole
Winfield and the Party of Five
Pecked by a Penguin
The Tangled Earbuds
The Frozen Turtlenecks
Sabra and the Pita Pockets
Watching Pinterest
Restickable Sticker
Zanfalcon Farwalker
P.S. I was going to add "The Ostomies" to this list, but I thought that was a shitty name.
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