It’s hard to think of an original band name these days. All the good ones seem to be taken. I even had this problem when writing The Encyclopedia of Demons trying to think of names for fictional metal bands, usually having to settle for names that were only taken by a handful of lesser-known bands.
Even then, that still didn’t entirely help since most of my fictional bands are also underground in the story, so my dad wasn’t sure if I was referring to the real band Lamašhtu when I introduced the made-up band Lamashtu in the story. This is exactly why I set it in an era before stuff like Spotify existed.
Nonetheless, some bands are still able to strike it big despite having terrible names that no other band would want. And if you think they at least have a good explanation behind these stupid names, well, you’d be wrong.
6. August Burns Red
I’ll start by giving credit where it’s due: their original explanation behind their band name was pretty fucking brutal. When asked about the origin of their name in a 2007 interview, they said:
We got our name, it’s really ridiculous story. We had our name because in high school, one of our best friends, Jon Hershey, who was also our vocalist at the time. But right before he joined the band, he was dating this girl named August. And the relationship got a bit out of hand and he really wanted to end it. So he ended the relationship and instead of getting just sad about it, she got really really really angry and Jon at the time had a dog named Redd, it was an Irish setter and it had red fur and everything. So she got really mad, went up to his house, and burned his dog Redd alive, in his dog house. And the name and everything comes from, because the next day, the headlines in the newspaper in the local news was “August Burns Redd” and then we just kind of went with it. It really affected Jon, so when we were picking a band name, that was one that stuck in his head, so he decided to use it. So our name doesn’t mean nothing, it just had a really weird and kind of gross meaning.
Dustin: And Redd was spelled with two D’s.
Brent: R-E-D-D.
Dustin: Jon didn’t know how to spell.
However, the band later revealed in a 2012 interview that they made up that entire story and that they “just came up with the name to come up with a name.”
I’m honestly impressed at how many people bought the story, considering how implausible it seems under scrutiny. Even when I read their original explanation on Wikipedia as a kid (before they updated the article), I couldn’t help but find the alleged newspaper headline a little sus. Even in local papers, it’s standard to refer to people by their last names in headlines, not “August.” And they would usually only refer to an individual by name if said individual was a high-profile public figure, not some random teenage girl and definitely not a dog. A more believable headline would have been “Lancaster Girl Burns Dog Alive in Dog House.”
But I guess that would make an even worse band name.
5. Breaking Benjamin
Not unlike the above, Breaking Benjamin has two explanations for the meaning behind their name. The first is from when frontman Benjamin Burnley was singing at an open mic night and accidentally dropped and broke the microphone, prompting the owner to say “Thanks to Benjamin for breaking my fucking mic.”
A simple enough explanation, and not even that stupid, so why is it on this list? Although this occasion inspired the name of Burnley’s band at the time, this band was an entirely different band from the Breaking Benjamin we know today, playing a much softer style of rock. This Breaking Benjamin broke up when Burnley moved from Pennsylvania to California.
Upon returning to his home state of Pennsylvania, Burnley formed a new, heavier band called Plan 9. However, after people kept mistakenly calling them “Planet 9,” they decided to change their name to “Breaking Benjamin” since Burnley still had a roll of Breaking Benjamin stickers from his old band.
So the real explanation behind the name of the Breaking Benjamin that hit it big is because the frontman already had a roll of stickers with the name, by his own admission.
4. Foo Fighters
Dave Grohl formed Foo Fighters in 1994, getting the name from a term used by the Allies in World War II for an unidentified flying object. Initially formed as an anonymous one-man band, Grohl wasn’t expecting it to take off as it did. He later admitted “Had I actually considered this to be a career, I probably would have called it something else, because it’s the stupidest fucking band name in the world.”
3. Led Zeppelin
When guitarist Jimmy Page suggested forming a supergroup with his former Yardbirds bandmate Jeff Beck and The Who members Keith Moon and John Entwistle, Moon joked the project would go down “like a lead balloon.” Although the above lineup never happened, the term stuck with Page, changing “balloon” to “zeppelin.”
Okay, none of this is very stupid, but the reason it made this list is the spelling: Page changed it from “Lead Zeppelin” to “Led Zeppelin” so “thick Americans” wouldn’t mispronounce it “leed.” Get bent, Page.
Well, at least I had a friend in high school who told me they changed the spelling for Americans specifically. And I could have sworn I read something confirming this, but now the best source I can find is a Reddit thread citing Hammer of the Gods, an unofficial biography of the band (which was panned by said band).
But who am I kidding? My American ass is not about to read a book anyway, so let’s just assume my high school friend was correct.
And speaking of not reading books…
2. The Devil Wears Prada
If only there were a work of Christian literature that could supply more thought-provoking and brutal band names…
Not only did they not read the Bible to find inspiration for their band name, the members also chose to not read the book The Devil Wears Prada, seeing that one of their moms was reading it and assuming it held an anti-materialist message. The band later read it to find out it did not carry that message at all, but by that point the book, its film adaptation, and their band had all taken off and it was too late to change their name.
1. Type O Negative
Ironically, the band who probably took themselves the least seriously on this list actually had a great band name. It perfectly fit their dark, brooding music and image. However, the way they ended up with that name was pretty dumb, nonetheless.
The band used to be called “Sub-Zero,” but they had to change the name due to another band holding the rights. However, all four members of the band had already gotten tattoos of the Sub-Zero logo, a hyphen with a circle around it. Instead of getting the tattoos covered or removed, they decided to make their new band name fit the tattoos, deciding on Type O Negative when frontman Peter Steele heard a radio advertisement looking for type O- blood donors.
How dare they shamelessly recycle their old material!