S, Page 6

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).

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Entries starting with S are split into multiple pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6

There are 4771 Band Name Origin entries on the site.

Name	Origin	Submitted by:
SUM 41	SUM stands for Sodomized Underaged Males, and 41 is half the year (1982) one of the integrants was born	sdikblack
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	Taken from W.H.Davies' book " The Autobiography Of A Supertramp" published in 1910.	Bun
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	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
SURGE	It was made up of the first letters of the band member's names	Optimus Lime
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
Sweet	Originally known as The Sweetshop, the parents of one of English band's original members owned a store in Putney selling sweets (or candy as it is known in the US). Shortened in 1968 to The Sweet on the eve of their debut single. The 'The' was dropped in late 1974.	Mick Duthie
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	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
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	Of all the names this band thought up, it was the only one they could agree on. They all agreed they hated it.	Rhiannsu
Switchfoot	It has to do with surfing; they switch their feet on the surfboard.	Cate
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
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
SWV	The female R&B trio's name stands for "Sistas with Voices".	Tha Immaci flava
System Of A Down	I read in Rolling Stone they named themselves after a line in a poem Daron wrote.	Patrick
System Of A Down	From a poem written by the guitarist, Daron Malakian, called "Victims Of A Down". Shavo, the bassist, didn't like 'victims' in the name so they changed it to System Of A Down.	Charles Runyan
System of a Down	"the system fell down" is a colloquial euphemism for electoral fraud.	Bird Sancho
System Of A Down	Victims Of a Down, was a poem that Daron wrote...ding ding....OK, everyone is sayin..they changed it from Victims to System becuase it sounded cooler. ERRR...wrong answer. Serj, Daron, John and Shavo thought Victims was too narrow or a title. They changed it to System, becuase it was broader, and would include more indivuals.	Natalia
System of a Down	Most of what's above is correct, but after choosing "System of a Down" over "Victims of a Down", Daron's poem title, the drummer was not John Dolmayan but in fact Andy Khachaturian, who would be replaced by John. Andy went on to form "The Apex Theory" with former "Soil" (the original name of SOAD) bassist Dave Hagopyan	joe
System of a Down	In the mid-90's when Serj Tankian and Daron Malakian were in a band called "Soil", Daron wrote a poem called "Victims of a Down". Serj thought that it was cool and decided to name the band after it. They later changed it to System of a Down because they thought that it sounded cooler.	nj
System Of A Down	System of a Down have a lot of songs about war. The name has something to do with "Down with the system of war" or "Down with the system".	Random Hero
System of a Down	Some people think Soil was the orignal name of SOAD but really it was the name of a group that included Serj, Daron, and a different drummer called Andy. None of them were born in Armenia but they all have origins there and Serj, Daron, and Shavarsh 'Shavo' all went to the same high school at one time. They all attended a private Armanian school. They are the the best band in the world.	ben
System of a Down	SOAD originally did a promo picture in a L.A newspaper yet in that very picture John (Drummer) was missing and was replaced by the name 'Andy'. This is because during the early days of system of a down, Andy was the frst pick for a drummer. Due to a squarel Andy left the band thinking that they would not go big. Yet 3 albums later the name system of a down has spread worldwide.	Genocide
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	I read Malakian (Vocals, guitar) were originally in a band called Soil. They joined up with their friend Shavo Odadjian (bass), and drummer Andy (sorry I forget his last name). Daron wrote a poem called "Victims of a Down", but Serj felt System was a more powerful word, and the others agreed. John Dolmayan replaced Andy as the drummer, I believe in 1997, two years after the band was started.	SOADfan
System Of A Down	In the begining SOAD as called Soil, and when the bands lineup changed, they changed they name into victims of a down, after Daron?s song. They later changed it into system of a down. A STANDS FOR "AMERICAN" (system of American down)	Miras-Yugoslavia
System Of A Down	Some people who have written about the origin of the poem by Daron as being the origin for the name are correct, but there i another dimension to the label. In almost every song that System Of A Down had written and put on an album, they use drop D and 1 tuning (very low) and 10/60 gauge strings. They have to use guitars with metal necks or when they play songs the neck would snap - thus they incorporate the System of a "DOWN" into their music	Jimmy
System of a Down	When they came together as a band, the very cute guitarist, Daron Malakian wrote a poem about the armenian genocide (the band is armenian) and it was originally 'victems of a down' but shavo, the bass player, didn't like the term 'victem' so the guitarist came up with system! He came up with system because the turkish people systematically massacred 1.5 million armenians! Their name is totally orginal! I love them all oh yeah, it was a coencidence that they were all armenian- a happy accident.	Clarissa
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
System Of A Down	They were actually going to be called originally Soil, but then they named themselves System Of A Down after a poem Serj Tankian wrote about the Armeniam genocide (they instead named a song "Soil" on their first self-titled album)	Mike Calleja
system of a down	In `95 (I think), Daron and Serj were in a band called Soil, but later in the `90s, the band fell apart. Daron wrote a poem called '' Victims of a Down''. Serj read it and thought it was really cool. They decided to start another band called ''Victims of a Down''. Now when Bush got into the Presidency, they didn't like him and decided to find a name besides victims. Daron decided "System of a Down" instead of "Victims of a Down" because system is more main stream into the goverment and things like that. I got that from a documentary MTV did!!	Taylen......
System of a Down	Daron calling the group's name from the poem he had written called "Victims of a Down". Shavo objected to the word "victims", for it's narrow personal qualitation, so Daron came up with a broader, ambiguous "system", which suited everybody and left room for thought and subjective interpretation... System of a Down, were born.	Emz Valore (a.k.a- spazz)
System of A Down	Formed by a politically driven maniac, and two secret gay lovers( Serj Tankian, Daron Malakian and Shavo Odadjian....hehehh in my dreams >.<), System was originally Soil, then Victims of a Down. John Dolmayan entered the band as the drummer awhile later, and they then changed their name once more in '95 .....And there we go... System of a Down :D teh Idiot tells no lies! Daron and Shavo are <3ers ^-^	Idiot
System Of A Down	Well a band member may well have written a poem including the words "victim of a down" but the Bible got to system of a down first. Im afraid i dont know the exact quote something about, you are now entering your system of a down.	jameS

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