Name Your Band

I have this...um...hobby? Obsession? Curse? Anyway, I tend to hear names for rock n' roll bands in everyday phrases, quirky word combinations, and slips of the tongue. I've scoured scraps of paper and calendar margins all the way back to junior high and put my findings here in case someone can make use of them...allowing me to get rid of all those scraps.

I make no claims of quality, one way or the other. Some are truly awful.

If you use, are inspired by, or recognize as already taken a name from this list, please send me an e-mail and let me know. I'll grey it out. Also please send your own name ideas.

Capitalization is optional. Some recently added entries are in orange or red. An underline indicates a name used from this haywire.net band-name list.

There are several other "Name Your Band" pages on the Web.


 Potential Band/Album Names

A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z

Brand new section of names HOT OFF THE PRESSES

A-H

I-R

S-Z

A
Abyss
Acheron
Achilles Helix
Ad Hoc
Alarm Will Sound
The Alien from Outer Space
All Those Hearts
Alphabet City
Amoebae
Anima
Animato
Apache Fog
Apostolic Car Wash
Argus
The Arrangement
Artist's Rendering
Asylum
B
Bachelors of Science
Bad Eggs
Bandersnatch
Barbaric Yawp
Beeswax
Beta Blockers
Bible Elbow
Big Media
Bluedy Moos
Blue In The Face
Blue Period
Blunt Object
Boat Payment Due
Bodily Functions
Bodily Present
Body Cavity
Boy Genius
Brain Trust
Buffalo Tongs
Butterfly Effect
Boing Boing
Bolshevixens
Boys Against Girls (or G.A.B.)
Bunches of Grapes
But Is It Art?
C
Cadaver
Calliope
Case in Point
Catharsis
Cattle Prod.
Celebrity Plaything
Chance in Hell
Cheap Shots
Choosey Mothers
Chromosomes
Chronological Liar
Circle
Clank
Clint's Squint
Clockwork
The Cogs
Coitus Rex
Comatose
Coyote Vamps
Critical Path
Cruel Hoax
Crusin' for a Brusin'
Culture of Suspicion
D
Dandelion Wine
Dedicated Poo (1)
The Dickens
DNA
Dog Logic
Dream Sequins
Drip, Dry & Sons
Durang, Durang
E
Earth Tones
Ed McMuffin
Effigy
El
Elixir
Ennui Are Family
Entities
Event Horizon
Everybody's Jesus
Evil I
Ex-Parrot
F
Faction
Fade to Black
Fang
Feedhaytackwire
Fertile Crescent
Fewmets
First Things First
Fits & Starts
Flash in the Can
Floor Jordans
4 Out of 5 Dentists
Franklin Pop
Freaks of Nature
Free Association
Friend of a Friend
Fries With That
Fulcrum
FUNEX
Fuzzy Logic
Fuzzy Metal (2)
G
Gangrene
Garbled Response
Generally Disillusioned
Generic Band
The Get-Go
Gizmology
Gnashing of Teeth
Good Cop Bad Cop
Good Eggs
Great Unwashed
Greatest Hits
Gypsies
Gypsters
H
Hairy Eyeball
Half a Mind
Half the Battle
Hand to Mouth
Handbasket
Happenstance
Hasn't Scratched Yet
Hell Toupee
Hogwash
Hollow Legs
Home Movies
Hominoids
Horn (2)
Hot Pursuit
Huckleberry Friend
Human Error
Hunt & Peck
Hurly Burly
I
Impetus
In Cahoots
Indifferent Drummer
Inferno
Infinite Monkeys
Inklings
In Like Flynn
Inner Circle
The Isms
Itch
J
The Jacks
Jalopy
Jenny & the Pirates
Jif & the Choosy Mothers
Jukebox Logic
Jump the Groove
Just Toast
K
Kadjangers
Kicking and Screaming
Kidding
Kiss Like I Sing
Kitchenette
Kitten Kaboodle
Kitty Karieall
Klaxon
L
Large, Large Sponge
Lather, Rinse, Repeat
Leaps & Bounds
Leaves of Glass
Lever & The Inclined Planes
Life as We Know It
Life in General - taken
Lightfantastic
Living Daylights
Long Slow Suicide
Looks Askance
Love City
Love Knots
Love Muffins
Lunatic
M
Mafia Suicide
Man with Van
Malicious Intent
Maniacal Lunch Bucket
Manic Spring
Manxome Foes
Marzeedotes
Mayonnaise
Medium Rare
Ménage à Un
The Mgt. (The Management)
The Midst
Mike Manure & the Meadow Muffins
Misspent Youth
Molecules
More of the Same
Mortar & Pestle
Mostly Sunday
Movers & Shakers
Moving Target
Mucous Membrane
The Musical Question
Mutual Fish
Mutual Friends
N
Need to Know
Neon
New Weird Order
New Word Order
Next Big Thing
Nick of Time
No Man is An Eyeball
No Rest for the Wicked
No Sudden Moves
Noble Savage
No Radio
No Reason
No Relation
No Prisoners
Not Actual Size
Nothing Doing
Not Pictured
O
Obelisk
Obelix
Objects in This Mirror
Obscure Band
Odds-My-Bodkins
Of All Things
Olyology
Onagain Offagain
One & the Same
Orange Genius
Out of Body Experience
Out of Context
P
Paleface
Papillon
Part of this Complete Breakfast
Passion Poop
Peas and Carrots
Penny Dreadful
Perpetual Erection
Phil & the Harmonics
Picture This
Pink Freud
Placebos
Plain Brown Rapper
Pocket Lady
Pod People
The Point
Poliaris
Present Tense
Presto Change-o
Pro Bono
Prone Rangers
Public at Large
Public Nuisance
Pulmonate Gastropods
Pulsar
Pure Chewing Satisfaction
Python
Q
The Quick
Qwertyuiop
R
Ra
Rabid Owl Posse
Rap CD in Blue
Ray of Darkness
Raze the Bar*
Red Rover
Red Shift
Retrograde Filth

Rhubarb
Riddle Me This
River Deep, Sugar High
Road Rugs
Romantic Art Heroes
Royal We
Rule of Thumb
Rumble Strip
Run Amok

S
The Same
Sanctions
Sand Castle Virgins
Schnel! Schnel!
Scop & Gleeman
Scratch n Sniff
Seescape
Sentinel
Shaftway
Share the Joystick
Splin Shints
Shaftway
Shock Value
Shrapnel
Shrinking Violet
Shudder to Think
Signus
Silent Spring

Silent Sproing
Silly Rabbi
The Skinny

Slam Bang Boom
Slam Bang Circus
Slap Happy
Slim to None
Slithy Toves
Slow Children at Play
Smackers
Small Potatoes
Snafu
Soar
Sock Monkeys
Solanoid
Something Ever After
Spades of Ace

Spandex Ballet
Spasmatics
Speed Bump
Spheres
Spock's Pod
Squeaky Toy
Squeaky Wheel
Squeezebox Palace
Squirrel on a Stick
Standard of Living
State of Flux
Stay Tuned
Stickybuns
Strange Attractors
Strange Weather

T
Taliban
Talisman
Talkin' Dogs
Tangents
Tarmac
10 Times Fast
This Just In
This Side Up
Throw the Switch
Ticketmaster
Toggle Switch
Totem
Tough Titties
Tower of Bagels
Trick Question
True to Life
Tubular Bongs
U
Uberfish
Ugly Mug
Ukelaliens (3)
Unforseen Circumstance
Unlisted
Up and Coming
V
Vandals & Visigoths
Verb Missing
Vice-Versa
Village Idiot
Void
Void Where Prohibited
Volition
Vomitzvah
Vortex
W
Wacky Neighbor(s)
Wandering Minstrel Eye
Waning Gibbous
Warp Factor Nine
Waxy Yellow Buildup
We the People
Welcome Wagon
Welfare State
Whiplash
Whole Shack Shimmies
Wild Blue
Witty Quips
Word for Word
Working Stiffs
Working Title
WYSIWYG
Y
Yes, No, Maybe So
Yonder
Yop
You Don't Say
Yow
Z
Zapf Dingbats
Zounds
     

(1) Seen on a truck in Portland (some letters were missing).
(2) Thanks to Nicole Burton of Canada, who also used the name "Abyss" from the list.
(3) Brainchild of Lawrence Rush, composer/lyricist/librettist

* These names were used by bands after being seen on this page!

Thanks to these additional band name contributors: Melinda Simms, Claire Wilkins, Sean Flora


Hot off the Presses

These names are so hot I haven't had time to put them in order yet! Nor, I should mention, to cut the really bad ones. (Not that I cut the really bad ones from the main list above, either.)

They are from members of the BMI Lehman Engel Musical Theatre Workshop in NYC, who have no idea yet that I've stolen them. You can tell a lot about these peoples' obsessions and what they have in their houses by the names they choose...see if you agree.

(More to come from Susan once shehas leftovers...)

David Spencer
The Comfy Chair
Vinyl Lives
Randall & Hopkirk (Deceased)
The City and the Stars
A Spaced Odyssey
The Vulcan Nerve Pinch
Amok Time
Cat's Pajamas
We're Just Better
Zebra Life
The House of Many Doors
The Angel-Buffy Crossover
Shatner's Corset
It Burns! It Burns!
Charade
Where No Band Has Rocked Before
Scarier Than We Look
Too Many Kitties
Wet Kibble
Walkies
Animals Unleashed
Close Enough for Rock
More to Follow.
Bandwidth
Shatner's Dramatic Pause
Anti-Wrinkle Breakthrough

Charles Bloom

Band de Solei
The Kibbitzers

Michael Mooney

The Dragonflies
Cherry Pie
Peanut Butter and Jelly
Beaded Lampshade

Randy Lake

The Devil's Sintax
Lector's Dentures
High, Wide and Mighty
Flour 'n Sugar (aka a whiter version of Salt n' Pepper)


Other "Name Your Band" Pages:

Colin Viebrock's Band-O-Rama <= Closed?  Mr. V. uses Javascript to generate a band name for you randomly from a long list of words. You'll get some names that are incredibly stupid and others that seem a work of genius. <As of 2003 it seems to have vanished.>
Aaron V. Humphrey's Random Band Name Server <= Closed? Everyone's friend Aaron V. Humphrey has set up a place where you can generate one or more names from a list of umpteen hundreds--maybe thousands--of odd suggestions. <Vanished -- too bad!>
band names a go go Fun list of names at merde.org
The Canonical List of Weird Band Names Thousands of real band names that will shock and delight you.
(Now being maintained by a fan of the original page, which was no longer being updated.)
Band Name Registry

 One resource you can use to find out if a band already exists with a particular name.

This site "...offers for the first time the opportunity for bands, groups, orchestras and artists to register their names, wherever they are in the world - and to search the database to see if their name or proposed name is already in use."

It's already become a standard in the UK, they say. Seems to work pretty well; I used their database and found out my favorite band name, Sometimes Y, was held already by a band in Twin Falls, Idaho. Oh, well!

Band-O-Matic  Picks one or another bizarre narne for you from a database

 

Please note that I am not responsible for the availability or restrictions on the use of any name on the list above, and anyone who uses one of these ideas does so entirely at their own risk.


 


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