Choosing a band name is the most difficult decision that any group has to make. A name will define you and is the first impression that most people will get of your band. People will often hear the name before they hear any music, pick the wrong one and it’ll put people off before they even listen to you. Of course, your name absolutely must be original as well. Choose something that someone else is using and at some point down the line you’ll have to change it. This article will steer you on the right track for choosing a band name.
The first thing to do is think about what kind of music you play and how you’d like your band name to reflect it. If you’re in a swing band it’s no use calling yourself Death Face or Hatebreed as everyone will think you’re going to be a death metal band. An extreme example, but it illustrates the point that the name must be synonymous with your genre. Death Face and Hatebreed would be good names for black metal bands, as people will get what they are expecting.
Make sure your band name is original. There’s no use in marketing and promoting a name that you’ll end up having to change once you gain a following, it’s wasted time and will just cause you more work down the road. This part is probably the most difficult thing about choosing a name, with more and more bands being created the list of available names gets shorter and shorter. Also with the Internet giving us the world’s information in an instant there’s no excuse for picking someone else’s name anymore. People will be searching for their bands and if they find you then they won’t be happy.
Speaking of the Internet, it’s a vital tool for promoting your band and will prove to be your greatest ally in your search for fans. With this in mind it’s best to choose a name that’s going to be easy to push to number one in Google as well as having the dot com web address free. If people can easily find your band online then you’re guaranteed to get more hits and downloads and hopefully more people to gigs and more merchandise sold. Make sure that the MySpace address is free too, it’s vitally important that people can find you easily on the web. Most people will just search Google or MySpace when searching for a band so make sure that if all they have to go on is your name then they’ll find you, and not a local carpet cleaning company.
A band name does not necessarily have to have a deep hidden meaning, it just needs to sound good. People need to want to wear your t-shirts and tell people about your band. If they feel stupid with your name on their chest or feel like an idiot saying the name then it’s probably not a good sign. Try to pick something that people will speak about. Make sure that you really read your proposed name in as many different ways as you can as well. Make sure you spot any double entendres or innuendoes before anyone else does, might save some embarrassment later on.
It’s not easy, my band is still unnamed after a three month long search for a moniker. Try to pick something you’re really happy with as once it’s set then you’ll be stuck with it.
