Picking an original band name is tricky. Try too hard, and you get something bloated and difficult to print on a T-shirt, like Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark. Don’t try at all, and you get Puddle of Mudd [sic].
Late last year, Tone Deaf reported on a list compiled by a stat-happy Reddit user, which listed the most popular band names in metal. Nemesis came out on top, with Reddit user darinhq counting 36 bands using the title on the Metal Archives, the Wikipedia of metal.
One member of the Tone Deaf office went to school with four bands named The Commodores, all of whom were seemingly unaware that the name had already been taken by Lionel Richie and his crew back in the ’70s.
It’s a tough situation, because a name can say a lot about your band and your music. It has to be something engaging, memorable, evocative, and above all original, like Chumbawamba or Enuff Z’Nuff. The internet has only made things worse.
Case in point, Bandcamp recently unveiled a list of the most commonly used names on their popular music sharing service (via FACT). The most popular name was chosen by an incredible 59 bands, far exceeding the paltry 36 going by Nemesis.
So what’s the most commonly used name on Bandcamp? For some reason, it’s Atlas (for the millennials playing at home, it’s what we used before Google Earth). Rounding out the top five are Apollo, Bloom, Nomad, and Paradox.
In fact, going down the list, you can sense a definite trend. All the names are one word, never more than three syllables, and usually have something to do with a celestial sphere or non-corporeal entity, like Haze or Ghost.
Check out the full list below.
Most Commonly Used Artist Names On Bandcamp
1. Atlas
2. Apollo
3. Bloom
4. Nomad
5. Paradox
6. Moon
7. Haze
8. Zero
9. Ghost
10. Indigo
