How names are chosen for musicians/bands

Bretrick

Bretrick

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Perth Western Australia
The Association
After breaking away from a thirteen member band called "The Men", someone suggested a name for their new group, "The Aristocrats".
Singer-songwriter Terry Kirkman's wife went to the dictionary to look up the word for them and found a better name on the very same page...The Association.
The Bay City Rollers
While searching for a name, they blindly stuck a pin on a map. It landed on Bay City, Michigan.
Canned Heat
According to original Canned Heat drummer Fito de la Parra, the band got the inspiration for the name while sitting around Bob Hite's house, listening to an old Tommy Johnson record called "Canned Heat Mama".
Deep Purple
Guitarist Ritchie Blackmore's grandmother liked the Bing Crosby song "Deep Purple".
 

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How did Green Day come up with its name?​

In the early days of their career, Green Day was performing locally under the stage name Sweet Children. While recording their first EP, they were made to change their name so they wouldn’t be confused with another local band called Sweet Baby.

The band put their heads together to think of something that they all loved and that they felt would represent them. And they came up with marijuana… Yes, really. In San Francisco’s Bay Area, where the band came together, the term “Green Day” refers to a day spent doing nothing but smoking weed. They had to make a quick decision so they went with it, and hey, it’s worked out well!
 
The Beatles

Took the idea of the name from Buddy Holly and the Crickets. They just changed Beetles to Beatles (as in beat). The ironic thing is that before Holly came up with the name Crickets he had considered calling his group the Beetles. The Beatles were huge fans of Holly and Paul McCartney actually owns the entire Holly catalog.
 
a-ha
A title that member Pal Waaktaar contemplated giving to a song. Morten Harket - lead singer - was looking through Waaktaar's notebook and came across the name "a-ha". He liked it and said, "That's a great name. That's what we should call ourselves."
After checking dictionaries in several languages, they found out that a-ha was an international way of expressing recognition, with positive connotations. It was short, easy to say, and unusual.
 
Country Music singer, Conway Twitty, - real name; Harold Lloyd Jenkins, took his stage name by combining two Southern US towns, Conway, Arkansas and Twitty, Texas.

Country Music singer, Dusty Springfield, - real name; Mary Isabel Catherine Bernadette O'Brien, was given the nickname "Dusty" because she played football with boys in the street; In 1960 she formed a group with her brother, Dion, and Tim Feild, called themselves The Springfields. This is when she adopted the name Dusty Springfield
 
The Mothers of Invention, originally formed on Mother's Day in 1965.
But the initial name was simply Mothers, alluding to the dirty word.
When they got their first record deal with Verve Records,the company recoiled at the name, so it was on the spot changed to Mothers of Invention after the ancient proverb.
 
Mamas and the Papas

Ellen Cohen - Cass Elliot - Mama Cass said the members of the band, (The Mugwumps) having disbanded the previous year, but still wanting to play, were flipping through the television channels and this talk show comes on with the Hells Angels and the first thing we hear is: "Some people call our women cheap, but we just call them our Mamas"
Cass jumped up: "Yeah! I want to be a Mama." And Michelle (Phillips) is going: "We're the Mamas! We're the Mamas!
I (Cass) look at John (Sebastian). He's looking at me going: "Mama, Mamas...Papas?" The Mamas and the Papas."
 
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