Names -> Band Name Origins -> S, Page 5
Do you know why a band picked out it's name? Feel free to let us know.
I can't verify all of these stories, so do take them with a grain of salt. I try and delete the ones that I know to be bogus, but I don't know the origins of every band name (and some bands intentionally tell different stories about picking their band name).
Entries starting with S are split into multiple pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6
There are 4420 Band Name Origin entries on the site.
Name | Origin | Submitted by: | ||
| Stone Sour | Stone Sour is a Molotov cocktail made up of 1 part whiskey and a splash of orange juice..they described there music as....1 part pure rock adrenaline with a splash of melody | Andrew | ||
| Stone Sour | I got it off their web page. Stone Sour is a kind of drink (1 part whiskey and a splash of orange juice and sour mix). | Deus | ||
| Stone Temple Pilots | Scott Weiland remembered a sticker on his bicycle as a child that had the letters "STP" on it. They were originally going to call the band "Shirley Temple's P****." | Matt | ||
| Stone Temple Pilots | It was said once on MTV, that STP stood for Stereo Time Pirates. | JS | ||
| Stone Temple Pilots | Actually, this is so stupid, but they actually wanted their initials to be STP, like the oil, y'know? So they thought + thought + thought + that's what came out. As the band members themselves say: "We couldn't have possibly call ourselves Shirley Temple's P*ssy cause no-one would ever print our full title".../ | Atropos | ||
| Stone Temple Pilots | HERE'S THE REAL DEAL: The orginal name of the band (which incidentally was so stupid I can't even recall it now...but, I think it was something along the lines of 'Mighty Joe Young') was found to be already taken by a little-known blues band shortly before their 1st album was ready for release. America, being the Land of Lawsuits, they had to change their name. They liked the STP logo stickers and wanted to do something with that. At first they were renamed Stereo Temple Pirates, but then changed to Stone Temple Pilots on a last minute spark of inspiration. | G-Whiz | ||
| Stone Temple Pilots | The flying monkey things, Getangs, from Teddy Ruxpin. | cass | ||
| Stone Temple Pilots | STP was a psychedelic drug popular in the late sixties, 2,5-dimethoxy-4-methylamphetamine (more commonly referred to as DOM now). This could be why they wanted the initials STP. | Bob | ||
| Stone Temple Pilots | It has been said that the band once had the name STP but was known in the beginning as Shirley Temple's Pussy--which is also STP. Upon success at signing a recording contract, the band kept the stp acronym, but changed the wording to be more marketable. | vlad | ||
| Stone Temple Pilots | Actually, Stone Temple Pilots was origionally called Mighty Joe Young. They then realized that there was a band called Ugly Kid Joe. Because of the similarity, they decided to change their name. They wanted the initials of the band name to be something popular that people already knew, so they picked STP. They were origionally Shirley Temple's Pussy, but were not able to keep the because of copyright reasons, and because the full name would never be able to be printed. Eventually they just came up with Stone Temple Pilots. It was just three words they put together, not meaning anything. I know this because it is in an official Stone Temple Pilots CD/Biography that I found. | Dana | ||
| Stone Temple Pilots | At the end of the first Star Wars movie (Episode IV), the x-wing fighter PILOTS all gather for attack on the Death Star. Where? In a big old STONE TEMPLE. | DJ | ||
| Stone Temple Pilots | I like to think that they are making a reference to carvings in ancient Mayan or Aztec temples where it looks like the man is sitting in a plane or rocket ship. | CuchiFrito | ||
| Stone Temple Pilots | The one origin one someone did up there about just going with STP cuz they saw it on some STP motor oil is correct. I remember watching a special after they did unplugged and what STP originally meant was Stereo Temple Pirates.... | Peter | ||
| Stone Temple Pilots | They just wanted to be called "STP". But fearing a lawsuit by the STP Car Care Company, the band settled for anything cool that stood for S.T.P. Scott Weiland and company found "Stone Temple Pilots" to be the coolest name with those initials. | J.C. | ||
| Stone Temple Pilots | In a book of Vietnam veterans poetry, there is a reference to a young fighter pilot who destroyed an ancient stone temple for target practice. | Bobostaxi | ||
| The Stooges | I guess these dude liked The Three Stooges , nyuk, nyuk, nyuk! | Mack the Knife | ||
| Story of the Year | Story of the Year started out as a band called Big Blue Monkey in 1999. They were locally popular in St. Louis, Missouri, their home town. In 2001, they changed the name of the band after becoming aware that there was another locally popular blues band who had taken Big Blue Monkey as a band name long before they did. They became Story of the Year because this name was the title of thier very first EP, as well as the title of the very first song on that EP. | Kieran T. | ||
| Story of the Year | On their first, self-titled album, "Big Blue Monkey" they had a song called "Story of the Year" and so.. deciding "Big Blue Monkey" wasn't gonna cut it, they re-named the band "Story of the Year" | Josh | ||
| Story Of The Year | They first started out as Big Blue Monkey. Then after playing awhile in St. Louis and persisting they were heard by a producer and became the story of the year. They became comfortable being called the Story of the Year and took up that name. | JOHN | ||
| The Stranglers | Originally named "The Guilford Stranglers" after a notorious early 70's South London multiple murderer nicknamed "The Guilford Strangler" this name became too offensive and not commercially viable especially as thet played most of their early gigs in South London where the murderer had still not been caught. Hence they changed it to just "The Stranglers". | Enver Hoxha | ||
| The Stranglers | In 1974 this band consisted of Jet Black, Hugh Cornwell and Jean Jaques Burnel (JJ Burnel) the band was called Wanderlust. As they played early gigs, sometimes they would mess up on stage. On a few occasions, they would play under assumed names, or give themselves deragatory nicknames backstage after particularly bad gigs. One night, JJ Burnel was heard to comment, "Well, The Stranglers have done it again." JJ Burnel relates this story in a Stranglers radio documentary. Intitially, they were known as the "Guildford Stranglers" because they lived in Guildford. The Stranglers registered their business name on September 11, 1974. They are still going strong! | Richard Kolkman | ||
| Stratovarius | Stratocaster (guitar) + Stradivarius (violin) = Stratovarius. | ^^ | ||
| Stratovarius | They combined the name of the classic violin (stradivarius), and a fender stratocaster thus becoming Stratovarius | Shawn McNally | ||
| The Strawbs | Dave Cousins who led (and still leads the band) and other members of the band were from Strawberry Hill in South West London. They originally performed as the Strawberry Hill Boys and later shortened it to The Strawbs. | Simon | ||
| Striknyne | They got their name from a friend of the Guitarist and the Lead singer after she was joking around about the name of the band and she said "call yourself striknyne" little did the band members know the name was rat poisoning, and the name stuck | K-MEN | ||
| String Cheese Incident | The band had a run-in with law enforcement (got pulled over or something) and had mushrooms. When questioned about what was in the bag, they supposedly claimed it was "string cheese" and were believed. Hence - the "String Cheese Incident." | Amy | ||
| String Cheese Incident | I read this in the Dec. 03 Issue of Relix.. it's about getting a piece of string cheese stuck in your anus. | Jesus | ||
| Stripey Says No | There was this puppet called Stripey and he used to come out and tell you not to have sex and all that stuff so he basically would tell you waht not to do. so from that you get "Stripey Says No" | Will | ||
| Stroke Nine | sorry don't remember if where the interview was but the band members said it "came" from a little contest they held where they saw how few strokes it took them to "finish" masturbating. I swear I heard them say this in an interview. Now of course these guys could have just been trying to make the female interviewer blush. -rkrii | rkrii | ||
| The Strokes | The band's "homework" had been to go home everyday and come back the next with a list of names. One day they were sitting around and Julian Casablancas(vocals) just kind of vomited it out...so, the moral of the story is, don't try too hard to come up with a name for your band. Focus on the music instead...rely on spontaneity. | Geneva | ||
| The Strokes | The band liked all the various meanings the word 'stroke' has. | Tareena | ||
| Stryper | Originally called 'Roxx Regime', Stryper got really big in their faith and commitment to god.. in the Bible. Isiah 53:5 says 'By his stripes, we are healed'.. so drummer Robert Sweet took it to his brother Michael Sweet and agreed to name the band Stryper | jackdaniels | ||
| Stryper | This Christian metal band were formed with the name "Roxx Regime". Following thier dedication to God, Rob Sweet was reading his Bible at Isaiah 53v5; ...By His Stripes You were Healed.... He came up with the word "Striper". Somebody pointed out that the spelling would lead to mis-pronunciatiom, so the name was changed to Stryper. This was convenient for the rockers, famous for thier yellow and blaxk striped Spandex and for throwing Bibles into the audience as it becsme an acronym for Salvation Through Repentance Yielding Peace Encouragement And Righteousness. A little Gospel message in a 7 lettered name! | jeduthunuk | ||
| Styx | They were called the Tradwinds before. But when they got a record deal with Wooden Nickel Records, their record producer came up with a list of 100 names. They picked Styx because it was the only one none of them hated. | Brandon | ||
| Styx | Yes, it was the "only one that none of [them] hated." Which is ironic, as Styx means hate in Greek. | Nick | ||
| Styx | While 'Styx' may indeed have been a reference to the mythical river leading to Hades, that was NOT the reason it was chosen. Wendy is correct; at least one other band member has echoed the explanation by Dennis DeYoung: "It was the only name that none of us hated." | Ron | ||
| Styx | It's from the mythlogical river in the underworld. | **JEANETTE** | ||
| Styx | Styx was named after "The River Styx" of Greek mythology. | oppenheim | ||
| Styx | It was the one name out of several that five guys didn't hate. Hey, they were almost Kelp, which if they were, I would list under "dumbest band names". | Wendy | ||
| Sublevel 27 | originally called inertia, lead singer Stone had a roomate whose favorite tv show was "the pretender". on that show an evil corporation known as the "centre" had a secret laboratory somewhere and "sublevel 27" was where they did a bunch of evil dark experiments. stone liked it and changed the name. | david z | ||
| Sublime | sublime, meaning Lifted up; HIGH in place; exalted aloft; uplifted; lofty, as well as Not to be excelled; supreme, ultimate | stacey | ||
| Sublime | Lead singer Brad Nowwel picked the name from a lyric he wrote "your'e down with a band they call sublime" | Ripp | ||
| Subseven | this band is christian and refers to satan having the number six, which is just below seven, god's number | steve mcmahan | ||
| Suede | Brett & the boys chose the name Suede because they liked the aesthetic shape of the word when written down, and thought it would look good on artwork. They also followed other British indie bands named after fabrics - Felt & Denim. | Hocster | ||
| Suede | Name inspired by the Smiths' song "Suedehead". Forced to go by "The London Suede" in the US. | Liam Rodgers | ||
| Sugababes | The Sugababes chose their name because when they formed, they ate lots of sweets at their auditions. They also used to eat baby food. | April Slocombe | ||
| Sugar Ray | Actually, Mark McGrath stated in an interview that it was named after Sugar Ray Robinson. | Rick | ||
| Sugar Ray | The bands original name was The Shrinky Dinx, but they got threatened by the toy company to sue, so they changed it to Sugar Ray, after the boxer Sugar Ray Leonard. | Jen | ||
| Sugar Ray | The band was named after the boxer Sugar Ray Leonard. | Susan | ||
| The Sugarcubes | The group struggled to come up with a name for a while, and finally one group member said that they should name themselves after the most pointless and absurd thing they could come up with. "The Sugarcubes" were the first name suggested, and it stuck. No LSD connection here. | Marcus van der Meer | ||
| Sugarcult | The guys of Sugarcult used to live next door to a group of lesbians. The girls next door had a name for themselves, The Sugarcult. So, the guys took the name from them. | RioT | ||
| Sugarcult | When Tim Pagnotta (lead singer) was in college, there was a group of lesbians living in a dorm room down the hall from him. They called themselves Sugarcult, and the name stuck for Tim's band. | Miri | ||
| Sugarcult | The lead singer of Sugarcult used to live in an apartment across from a group of lesbians that called themselves Sugarcult, and decided to pick it as his band's name. | Joe | ||
| Sugarland | Even though it started in Atlanta and moved to Nashville, Sugarland is named after the city of Sugar Land, Texas, in Houston's southwest suburbs. According to the band's lead singer Jennifer Nettles, they decided on that name because it sounded like a nice name. Well, who could blame them? | Eric | ||
| Suicide High | the band went to a school that had an ungodly amount of suicides in a matter of months earning their school the nick name of suicide high, (the band went to marion high in iowa) | jake | ||
| Suicide Machines | It used to be "Jack Kevorkian and the Suicide Machines." Dr. Kevorkian's lawyers requested that they change the name. They dropped the Dr. K, and it became "Suicide Machines". | Kevin | ||
| Suicide Machines | i heard it refers to the high suicide ratings in detroit | Rachel | ||
| Sum 41 | They started their band on the 41st day of summer, but they were eventually going to change their name, but it stuck. | Kay | ||
| Sum 41 | I saw this on a documentary: Deryck explained that they saw the Vans Warped Tour on the 41st day of summer. | xkiss13x | ||
| Sum 41 | Derek (lead singer) said "when you ad a penny, a nickle, a dime , and a quarter, the SUM is 41. | sum41fan247 | ||
| Sum 41 | Sum 41 derives from "All for One" All=Sum for=4 One=1 Sum 41 | Scotty | ||
| Sum 41 | Derek said on the muchmusic channel show IMX that "when you add a penny, nickel,dime, and quarter the SUM is 41" | payupsucka$$$ | ||
| Sum 41 | Sum 41 DOES NOT STAND FOR "Sodomized Underaged Males"... that was a sick rumor. the real reason they are named that was because one summer the boys were hanging out and trying to find a name for the group and since it was the 41st day of summer that year, they just picked SUM 41. Most people know this already. | Ariel | ||
| Sum 41 | They called their band this because it was formed on the 41st day of Summer | Amy | ||
| Sum 41 | If you`ve ever looked at a typing keyboard, you`ll notice that on the top, there are numbers with symbols on it. Look at your typing keyboard, and for 4&1, there is a $ and a !. So, Sum 41 means, sum money! | Mike Sorensen | ||
| SUM 41 | SUM stands for Sodomized Underaged Males, and 41 is half the year (1982) one of the integrants was born | sdikblack | ||
| Sum 41 | The badns very first gig was in a park in their hometown, waiting backstage to go on they asked a steward how many people where there (cause they were quite nervous being there first gig) the guy replies "Some 41" and thats where the name came from, the number of people at their first even gig! | GrannyMonkey | ||
| Sum 41 | They played their first gig on 41st and sumster st. | Gunner | ||
| Sum 41 | They used to be called Mus 14 and they thought of a great idea to be backwards and so they were called Sum 41 | Mandy Noo | ||
| Sunder | Word used to let people in the old west and Montana know that by sunrise they would be swinging from a noose. Also supposedly a Cree Indian word meaning "revolution by smashed brains." | Dave Johnson | ||
| Sunn O))) | The band named themselves after their favourite brand of amplifiers, Sunn. The Sunn amplifier logo features the word 'Sunn' folowed by a circle (intended to be a sun) with concentric circles coming off it. So if one was to type out the logo, it would read Sunn O))). It is also intended to be a tip of the hat to Earth, the band who inspired Sunn O))) to form. | tom | ||
| Sunna | It was picked cos Jon Harris (lead singer) believes that organized religion is shameful so Sunna meaning faith without religion was an ideal name for them | neon-flame | ||
| Sunna | SUNNA= faith without religion. Also: the body of tradition that states accept no tradition. Also: icelandic sun god. | FELIX* | ||
| Sunny Day Real Estate | From a discussion about how everything is bought and sold, and how people will soon be trying to sell sunny days. Hence, "Sunny Day Real Estate." | RexHowland | ||
| Super Joint Ritual | The name actually isn't a drug reference. Joint is used in the sense of the joining of people at a particular gathering place in a ritualistic manner. For example, going to that beat down place every friday night to see the band playing. Except this would be no normal ritualistic gathering, this would be a Super Joint Ritual anywhere these guys go. | DS | ||
| Superchic[k] | Meaning:Superchic[k] \ Superchic[k]\ (s p r- ch k) n. (1) Either whoever’s in Superchic[k]’s van when it leaves. (2) Gender-neutral term for someone who is figuring out the path to greatness that God intended for them. History of it: Max was corresponding with a fan whose email name was Superchick11. Superchick11 shared with them this story: The popular people at school told her that she could be part of their group if she dressed like them. The next day, she showed up with her gym clothes on over her clothes. She made her point, won her fellow students respect, and was even elected homecoming queen. | Hiro | ||
| Superchunk | According to 1996 interview with Mac: MM: Our drummer Chuck [Garrison] was listed in the phone book as "Chunk," so that seemed good, but there was already a percussion group in NYC called Chunk who asked that we change our name. My mom suggested the "super" part when we couldn't come up with a completely new name. | Matt | ||
| Superchunk | Originally "Chunk" after first drummer Chuck "Chunk" Garrison, another band got peeved and, after "discussion", Mac & Co. became Superchunk. No, it's not after the Chunky candy bar. | Finchley | ||
| Superdrag | In parts of Tennessee, taking a huge hit from a "funny cigarette" was known as a superdrag. | BoMBeRPuNK | ||
| Supertramp | The band got it's name from the first drummer by the name of Richard Palmer. Palmer wrote all the bands lyrics at the time and was a literature graduate or student at least. The name comes from a book by W.H. Davies. The book being titled "The Autobiography of a Supertramp". There was an online version of it if anyone cares to give it a read. | Tony Trampfan | ||
| Supertramp | Unemployed guitarist Roger Hodgson was busking in the underground (subway)in London in the late sixties when a man approached him. An unkempt Hodgson asked if if he liked the music, to which the man replied, "Super, Tramp!" (Tramp is the British word for a "bum" or "hobo") | Richard Braithwaite | ||
| Supertramp | I've read in a newspaper in Holland that Supertramp is named so because the members of the band originally were street musicians, so they were kind of 'tramps'. | DJ Flap | ||
| Supertramp | The name was part of the title of W.*. Davies' book "The Autobiography Of A Supertramp". | rocky | ||
| Supertramp | Taken from W.H.Davies' book " The Autobiography Of A Supertramp" published in 1910. | Bun | ||
| Supertramp | The name was part of the title of W.*. Davis' book "The Autobiography Of A Supertramp". | rocky | ||
| Supremes | Florence Ballard - one of the original founding members of the Supremes - picked the name out of a hat in the Motown offices. And the rest is history. | Ken | ||
| Surreal Madrid | the lead man from the band was at a pub quiz one night, and this was the name of the team on the next table! | Agent Doug | ||
| Surrealistic Penguin | The name comes from Hitch-hikers Guide to the Galaxy where everything is surreal and he turns in to a ............... erm yeah you guessed it, a penguin. | Allison | ||
| The Swenson-Elenz Movement | The lead keyboarder, last name is Swenson, drummer last name is Elenz. | jick | ||
| Swineherd | The band always rehearsed in a farm and the name came from a mid-rehearsal wander through the pig sty. It was originally Swineherd Swineherd in thin parody of Duran Duran, but was shortened on record company advice. | Christian Tiburtius | ||
| Swing Out Sister | Of all the names this band thought up, it was the only one they could agree on. They all agreed they hated it. | Rhiannsu | ||
| Swing Out Sister | This was the name of a "B" movie, released about 1946, featuring Arthur Treacher (of Fish and Chips fame) It was the only name the group could agree on. They agreed they all hated it.... | Ron Gordon | ||
| Swing Out Sister | I heard a radio interview once with one of the band members who said the band couldn't agree on a name the liked, so they agreed on a name they didn't like. | Ken | ||
| Switchfoot | It has to do with surfing; they switch their feet on the surfboard. | Cate | ||
| Switchfoot | The guys loved to surf and grew up around surfing so they wanted to incorporate it into their music. They picked the name "Switchfoot" as their band name, which is basically when you switch the position of your feet on the surf board. | Murphy | ||
| Switchfoot | Jon Foreman himself said, "Switchfoot is a surfing term. We all love to surf and have been surfing all our lives so to us, the name made sense. To switch your feet means to take a new stance facing the opposite direction. It's about change and movement, a different way of approaching life and music." | Amanda | ||
| Switchfoot | The bandmates are all avid surfers (from San Diego I think). Switchfoot is a surfing term. They liked it because of the implications of a new foot forward-they have a "not-so-in-your-face" Christian message. Great band! | Me | ||
| SWV | The female R&B trio's name stands for "Sistas with Voices". | Tha Immaci flava | ||
| System of a Down | While The System was still called "Soil" (there is now another rock band called Soil), Daron wrote a poem called "Victims of a Down", which they thought was very cool, so they changed their name. Then they changed it to "System of a Down". Soon after, they changed their bassist and drummer to Shavo and John. | Tony | ||
| System of a Down | Well, a lot of their songs are about the System, like war, government, how this world is. So it is like the "System" and it is going down, so, that is why it is System of a Down. | libbi |
Entries starting with S are split into multiple pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6
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