Their singles “Island in the Sun” and “Beverly Hills” are lauded by the listening public. However, not much this somehow-famous band has produced really sticks around. Still, they’re more than a two-hit wonder. Comprising of Rivers Cuomo, Patrick Wilson, Brian Bell, and Scott Shriner, they’ve been active since 1992.
The origin of the simple name comes from Cuomo’s father, who gave him the nickname “Weezer” as a child. When his parents got divorced, Cuomo’s father would write letters to him, opening each one with “To Weezer.” Rivers grew so attached to the name that he attached it to his band, which soon shot to almost-stardom.
Coldplay
A simple, memorable name does wonders for a band, and such is the case for Coldplay. Group founders Chris Martin and Jonny Buckland both attended University College London. While in school, Martin and Buckland first collaborated on a band they named Pectoralz. Thankfully, they realized that name wasn't great, and they switched to...Starfish. Which is better, no doubt, but still doesn't have that certain something.
After that, their friend Tim Crompton came up with the name Coldplay for his own band but decided he didn't like it, gifting it to Martin and Buckland. Decades later, almost everyone has heard of Coldplay, all thanks to Crompton not liking it enough for his own band.
Grateful Dead
The Grateful Dead mixed psychedelic rock, folk, jazz, country, and even gospel, making a sound that remains unique even to this day. For information about the name, fans – known as “Deadheads” – can turn to biographer Blair Jackson, who wrote "Grateful Dead: The Music Never Stopped". It says that lead guitarist Jerry Garcia discovered the name by accident.
He was at bassist Phil Lesh's house once and opened the dictionary. Flipping through it, he found by happenstance the juxtaposed words “grateful dead.” Jerry described it like this: “Everything else went blank, diffuse, just sort of oozed away, and there was GRATEFUL DEAD in big, black letters edged all around in gold.” Sounds magical.
Green Day
Think hard enough, and you'll come up with the reasoning behind this name. This punk-rock trio gave their genre a dose of new life even in the new millennium when their brand of music was starting to falter.
The band's front-man, Billie Joe Armstrong, revealed the simple truth of the name when he appeared on "Real Time with Bill Maher" more than ten years ago. Maher asked Armstrong about the urban myth that the name comes from... let's call them green cigarettes. Armstrong immediately replied that it does.
Red Hot Chili Peppers
Anthony Kiedis, “Flea” (real name Michael Peter Balzary), Hillel Slovak, and Jack Irons are four groovy friends from Fairfax High in California. When they came together to make high-energy music, they named themselves Tony Flow and the Miraculously Majestic Masters of Mayhem. Now there's a name that will strike a chord.
However, it was a bit too complicated for their tastes, and so later re-branded to Red Hot Chili Peppers. Kiedis said that this name came from the inspiration he and his friends took from American blues and jazz bands, such as Louis Armstrong's quintet, The Hot Five.