Nirvana. Nirvana has cemented themselves in music history as the greatest “grunge rock” band of all time. However, if things went a little differently, you might have been calling them “Ted Ed Fred and Pen Cap Chew.” That was one of the names they considered before turning to “Nirvana.” Kurt Cobain said that “I wanted a name that was kind of beautiful or nice and pretty instead of a mean, raunchy punk name like the Angry Samoans.“ Nirvana does sound nice, doesn’t it?

Green Day. Green Day is one of those bands who really struggled for years to make it big early, and then blew up and became a worldwide success. Gotta love a story like that. Anyway, back in their early days (1986) they were known as ”Sweet Children.” When they found themselves often getting confused with local band “Sweet Baby” they decided a name change was in order. Billie Joe Armstrong recalled writing a song called “Green Day” which he wrote about marijuana, he and his band mates liked the name, so they decided to use it for the band.

AC/DC. As one of the most successful hard rock bands in music history, AC/DC has sold over 200 million records worldwide. Where did their name come from? Well, Maragret Young, the sister of Angus and Malcolm (the band’s founders) noticed the initials AC/DC which represent both “current” and “direct current” on her sewing machine, and her brothers loved it. They figured it perfectly represented their high energy style of music, and the rest is history.

System of a Down. System of a Down has sold over 40 million albums worldwide and have been a fixture in the alternative music scene for quite some time now. They got their name from a poem titled “Victims of a Down” by Daron Malakian. The band’s bassist Shavo Odajian suggested the name, and then they all agreed to change “Victims” to “System” in an attempt to hit a larger audience.

Guns N Roses. This is a case of really just combining two existing band names into one. Hollywood Rose and L.A. Guns. Two bad ass sounding names that got pushed together to sound even more bad ass.

Korn. When coming up with a bunch of name ideas for the band, the word “corn” was brought up as a possible choice. Although it initially met rejection, guitarist James James “Munky” Shaffer wasn’t quite ready to let go of it. So, he wrote the word down as if a kid had written it, and replaced the C with a K, and used a backward R. They liked it, and figured why not? Original drummer for the band, David Silvera said that , “The music makes the name, because Korn’s a dumb name. But once we get established, it makes the name cool.”

Limp Bizkit. Despite being widely criticized, the band has sold over 40 million records worldwide, all with a name like “Limp Bizkit.” Rapper Fred Durst said that “The name is there to turn people’s heads away. A lot of people pick up the disc and go, ‘Limp Bizkit. Oh, they must suck.’ Those are the people that we don’t even want listening to our music.” Other potential names for the band were Split Dickslit and Bitch Piglet.

Linkin Park. The band was originally known as Xero and Hybrid Theory until lead singer Chester Bennington drove past the “Lincoln Park” sign in Santa Monica after band practice. He suggested it as a name and the guys liked it, however copyright issues with the domain name “lincolnpark.com” was too pricey for their budget. So, they decided to change the spelling, and Linkin Park was born.

Lynyrd Skynyrd. The origin of this band’s name is pretty awesome. When band members Ronnie Van Zant, Gary Rossington and Allen Collins were in high school, their gym teacher, Leonard Skinner, constantly gave them shit for having long hair and backed the policy against boys having long hair. So, the name was made as a little mocking gesture to good old Lenny.

Megadeth. You don’t sell over 50 million records worldwide without a sick name like Megadeth. Dave Mustaine pulled the name out of a song he had written which had the line “The arsenal of megadeath can’t be rid no matter what the peace treaties come to.” After being fired from Metallica, he formed his own band and used the name “Megadeath” before dropping the second “a” after he found out that “The Megadeaths” was one of Pink Floyd’s initial names.

Mötley Crüe. When guitarist Mick Mars was in a band called “White Horse” he recalled that someone once said that they looked like “a motley looking crew.” They then decided on the name Mottley Cru, which was then changed to MötleyCrüe. The dots were also added thanks to the German beer, Löwenbräu which they were drinking at the time.

Nickelback. Love them or hate them, Nickelback was the second highest selling foreign act in the states during the 2000s next to The Beatles. When singer Chad Kroeger would frequently buy cups of coffee for $1.95 back in the day, he would always pay with a Toonie. After paying for his coffee he would receive a nickel back, and for whatever reason that struck him as a great name. He pitched it to the guys, they loved it, and Nickelback was born.

Pink Floyd. This legendary band was originally named “Tea Set.” In the early days when they would be put on bills that had acts with similar names, they would have to make up a name. Singer Syd Barret came up with the name “The Pink Floyd Sound” as a little shout out to blues legends Pink Anderson and Floyd Council. Eventually, the words “The” and Sound” were dropped, giving them the iconic name Pink Floyd.

The Rolling Stones. Another incredibly iconic band with a wicked name, The Rolling Stones were named on a whim by original guitarist Brian Jones. When on a phone call, he was asked what his band’s name was, he looked over at a Muddy Waters LP and noticed the song ” Rollin’ Stone” on the track list and told them that was their name. It was eventually changed slightly to “The Rolling Stones.”

Kiss. Guitarist Paul Stanley is the man behind the legendary name KISS. While driving to New York City with the hopes of making it big, the band was throwing name ideas around when he said “What about Kiss?” The idea stemmed from his former band “LIPS” and stuck as the band members felt that it sounded sexy and dangerous.

Led Zeppelin. When members of “The Who” Keith Moon and John Entwistle joked that Jimmy Page’s new band would go down “like a lead balloon”, Jimmy decided to adapt that as their band name. However, he changed “balloon” to “zeppelin” and got rid of the “a” in lead as he feared that people might pronounce it as “leed.”