20 Surprising Reasons Behind Musicians' Stage Names

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20 Surprising Reasons Behind Musicians' Stage Names

For Google-ability we can all be grateful that musicians chose more creative monikers than their given names.

Coldplay was named after a book of poems. The book? Child's Reflections: Cold Play. The original name? Starfish. Seems like they made the right choice

Daft Punk was based on a bad review of the pair's earlier project. The pair was originally named Darlin', and a critic called their work a daft punky

Jimmy Eat World was making fun of the guitarist's little brother's weight. Tom Linton's younger brother Jimmy was the subject of childhood taunting, w

David Bowie named himself after Jim Bowie and Bowie knives. He was worried that if he used his real name David Jones would be confused with Davey Jone

First Aid Kit was inspired by the dictionary. Klara Soderberg said, I was 13...and looking through a dictionary, looking for a name.... I think music

Fountains of Wayne was named after a lawn ornament store. In Wayne, NJ, there was a store with the name, and the band thought it was amusing. CRACKED.

Paramore was an original member's mother's maiden name. When they learned the meaning of paramour, they took on the name, using the spelling of the ma

Cardi B based her name off Bacardi alcohol. Her sister's name is Hennessy sO people used to call her Bacardi, which she shortened. CRACKED.GOM

311 is an Omaha police code for indecent exposure. The guitarist got arrested for skinny dippinng, So they used the citation code as a band name. CRAC

Halsey is an anagram of her first name, Ashley. It's also the subway stop in Brooklyn, New York, where she grew up. CRACKED.GOM

Skrillex was Sonny Moore's old AOL name. It was a stupid old online AOL screen name. There really isn't a meaning behind it. CRACKED.GOM

The Cure was originally named after one of their first songs Easy Cure. Robert Smith thought the name Easy Cure was too American and hippie-ish SO t

Childish Gambino' came from a random name generator. To Donald Glover's credit, it was a Wu-Tang name generator SO ... nice. CRACKED.COM

Avicii came up with his name because his real name was taken on Myspace. Avici is the the lowest level of Buddhist hell, according to Tim Bergling.

The 1975 was named after a journal entry. Matty Healy found an old book in a yard sale that had an entry dated 1st June, The 1975. CRACKED.GOM

Lizzo was inspired by Jay-Z's song Izzo. Her real name is Melissa so instead of shortening to Lissa, she went with Lizzo. CRACKED.GOM

Blondie was a common catcall to Debbie Harry. You can thank uncreative, creepy truckers for this band name. CRACKED.COM

BTS stands for Bulletproof Boy Scouts. rd S fllbc JSIC A RD: The Korean expression is Bangtan Sonyeondan. CRACKED.COM

Charli XCX was her MSN name. XCX as in Kiss, Charli, Kiss. CRACKED.COM

Lady Gaga was inspired by Queen. She was first called Gaga as a reference to Queen's song Radio Ga-Ga. CRACKED.COM
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