What is in a name? A rose by any other name would smell as sweet!

I am afraid I am praying on the good graces of you mustard board genii. There is a new band in Dundee - fiddle, banjo and guitar involving 3 of the fine fellows from this site and we seem to be stuck for a name - or rather we have some ideas but would like better ones please.

What do you consider important in the choosing of a name? Are the best names funny or very serious?; short and snappy or inconceivably long? If you are in a band how did you arrive at your name?

Extension:

When you consider the well known and, maybe long established bands that are around now do you even consider what their name means anymore or does it just become a name? I remember one of the Capercaillie crew years ago disavowing any responsibility for naming the band (can’t remember which one it was). Other unusual names must include the likes of “Deaf Shepherd”. What odd names can you think of that have been used before and do you think it was a good choice?

Anyway that is that - I am done waffling - take the conversation in any direction you want.

I like band names that have multiple meaning - and humor is a good thing too. The double entendre is a good place to start, maybe. Or maybe some cool gaelic word that means something cool. Or maybe a play on words.

One of my bands is named after a tune (Ask My Father), and the other was a play on words (Sligo’s Time)

Pete

I love the band names Lúnasa, Blowzabella, and The Devil’s Interval. The only thing these names have in common is that they are all rooted somewhere in the tradition of the music (not doubting that any of you already know, but Lughnasadh is a gaelic holiday, Blowzabella is a traditional English dance and The Devil’s Interval is a more cynical name for a diminished fifth). The names for bands I tend to like are ones based in the tradition, rather than “cool” modern names like Flook.

However, I do think The Cosmic Sausages were on to something.

A mate of mine chose a name for his band whilst walking through Smithfield meat market many years ago. He noticed a circular poster (just the right size to go on the bass drum) that proclaimed “Fine Young Turkeys - Pick of the Market”. So Fine Young Turkeys they became (this was before Fine Young Cannibals, btw).

By the same token, I liked the poster I saw at Covent Garden that said “Pick English Cox”, but he didn’t like “English Cox” for a name…

Bradan
Sgadan Biruch
Uisge ban
Tuigse
Tuil
Iasgaith
Guskippletuh
Dundee Cake
The Tay Boys
The Quayside Pirates
Wallace’s Wallies
Dun Daig
Deoch
The Pictish Pixies
😉

Jam, Jute and Journalism.

Yeah, the three J’s, you could call yourselves “The Three Jays”

An old trick learned from Master Ray Bradbury was the stream of consciousness thing, letting every idiotic thing spill out over time, maybe even greased with some single malt, and you write it all down and don’t edit anything, don’t let your editor slow the process down, even the most rediculous needs to be noted and allowed. When you’ve filled a couple of sheets of A4, the lot of you, then you go back over it and have a laugh, and you might just find a pearl hidden amongst all the shight…

It has always worked for us in the past when we needed a name…and it was fun. The last time we did it was over a picnic, and there was booze present and homemade ice cream and ~ lots of good things… I was about to confess ‘Dundee Cake’… 😉

Thanks guys, lots of great ideas there. I like the idea of the “Three Jays” despite having grown over the last year to hate the bloody phrase - Jute, Jam and Journalism!

My first suggestion was Tayport Convention - got shot down in flames - I still like it though.

‘Not Quite A Quartet’ is another I quite like although I have been told (not by the other two who haven’t heard it yet) that it is either “great”, “too long” or “a bloody crap name”. 🙂

Two favourites,Roaring Jelly and The Kamikaze Leprechauns.

Isn’t there an ITM band name generator somewhere?

“Humors of [your town name here]”
“The [your town name] Lads”
“The Lassies of [your town name here]”

Or is that a tune name generator? Eh, either way.

I prefer “Seamus O’Shamrockahan and the Florida Swamp Paddies” myself, but I’m a weird one.

Ah, that night in Dundee…LOUD bad U.S. export blooz band playin, generically spike-haired bartender screamin ‘yezz wan oiz wi that?’

Alectum

The Reel Deal
The Jig is Up

?

Thought you might accept suggestions from the committee?
Pick *at most* 3 names which apply to who you are or how you do it. The more choices you have & it’s identity crisis. Each week ~ a new name. Fun but no resolve. Unless, of course, you suck & don’t want anyone to recognize you.
The mine field:
~ Inside jokes or references
~ Tune titles

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that’s what it said in “No Cause’s” post and at first glance I thought that was the chosen name.

It has grown on me since.

Alectum is already in my list - ‘great minds’ and all that!

Hmmm…I’d avoid any name that rhymes with body parts with which you would not want to be associated. Also, if you’re going for the gaelic, consider how many times over the years you want to hear the name mangled by well-meaning but linguistically challenged supporters. I wish I had minimum wage per hour for all the time I’ve spent in my life agonizing over group names. It would definitely come out to more than I’ve made actually playing music.Seems like we’d most often end up with the one everyone could live with. But I know the feeling of hoping that someday the perfect name will pop out. And sometimes it does. Good luck!

The worst named band i have been in was “ Spiersies Torchlight Massacre”. The moral of the story? Never ask a goth to come up with a suitable name for a trad dance band.

The worst named band I was in was “Norman’s Fabulous Cousins”. We prided ourselves on being the Number 1 band in Aberdare.

… but I suppose the Sterephonics would be in there with a shout nowadays …

TAYZ ~ Tay’s / Tays / Tease / Tayzered ~ TAYZ’R

The Tayside Privateers ~ ARRRR!!!

The Tayside Bully Boys ~ EH, yuh f’n liddle shight!!!

The Monophonics?

No Cause for Alarm?

The Tayside Scum Bowling Club

Don’t be cute or satirical or come up with something hard to pronounce….I know from experience…..you will regret it in the long run. A name for a group needs to be something you can live with for a long time, so choose wisely (pick in haste, repent in leisure and all that).

The name ‘Paddy goes to Holyhead’ impressed me when I first came across it, but the name that always lives with me was a punk band called ‘The entire population of China’.

And the shorter the name, the bigger it will be on the posters - think about it, if you’ve got, say, 25 cm for the band name, and it’s got five letters in it, then each letter will be a lot bigger than if you’ve got 25 letters . . .

Roaring Jelly have, of course, reformed, under the new monica of “Omega Three”, because they need their nutritional supplements these days, although the music and humour is as good as ever.
For my band, many years ago, SO and I were brainstorming, and picked out 6 names from American patchwork quilt patterns, which are many and quaint; I went to bed, and in the morning woke up and said a name that was a combination of two of these.
Guess what ? There’s a Canadian band with the same name, but they don’t play for dances ( phew ! ).

Bands I have played in for short periods;
Brute Force and Ignorance;
Wide-Eyed and Fretless;
Skunk’s Misery Road;
The Outriders;
Tied Logs.
Names nobody wanted to know;
Privateers Commission;
Pillicock Hill;
Pestilence;
Pinto;
The Last Of the Red-Hot Hippies.

You have my sympathies yet again GP… Bless you… 😎

I especially liked “Pillock Hill”…

Rod and the Miles
The Roundabouts
Awa Tay Folk

In Dundee “The Roundabouts” would be “The Circles” :-S

there’s enough of the things anyway!

The Dundeementalists
A Ninga Neena Na

Roaring Jelly have re-formed? Do they still have the rubber banjo?