10 Bands With Weird Names And Why They Were Chosen

Ever wonder what the reason for a band’s name is? Where did such creativity come from to baptize a musical group Pedra Letícia, which was recently the support band in the “Programa do Porchat”? Going back further in time, what is the origin of the name Secos e Molhados, the band that revealed Ney Matogrosso? Or Os Paralamas do Sucesso, a group that has been successful since the 1980s?

O incredible.club selected 10 bands from the past and present and researched in interviews with its members the origin of these very creative names — sometimes the explanation is also very creative. Have fun below with us.

Inspired by the cartoon Jonny Quest, the band from Minas Gerais was initially called J. Quest, only with the “J” pronounced in English (djêi🇧🇷 However, few people got the pronunciation right. It was in an edition of the Planeta Atlântida festival in Rio Grande do Sul, in the 1990s, that they decided to change the name.

According to vocalist Rogério Flausino, the group, still in the beginning of their career, gathered in front of the stage to see a show by Tim Maia. When a security guard tried to take the musicians out of the reserved area, Tim caught their attention: “Hey, my brother, leave Jota’s boys there in peace”. From then on the band adopted the pronunciation in Portuguese and the spelling still became Jota Quest.

The band is from Brasilia, but that’s not why the name was chosen. The issue is that, in the early 1980s, when the group emerged, there was a lack of money to take the first steps. In other words: the group led by vocalist Dinho Ouro Preto did not have the initial capital to form the band.

The band became known nationally for doing the musical part of the extinct Programa do Porchat, on Record. Although the musicians like to joke about the origin of the name — in one of them saying that the group was previously called the Beatles — the story is that it came from a sketch in the humorous “Os Trapalhões”.

In the number of the program, Didi changed the lyrics of the opening song of the soap opera “O Astro” (“Bijuterias”, by João Bosco) and instead of singing “My stone is amethyst”, he said “My stone Letícia”. That is: the name has no serious explanation or that makes any sense.

Although there is some controversy as to the origin of the name, in an interview with the extinct magazine “Showbizz”, Renato Russo stated that the group was named that way because there were many musicians in Brasilia at the end of the 1970s and beginning of the 1980s. a group called Aborto Elétrico, which also gave rise to Capital Inicial. The many musicians were legion.

There are also references that the name comes from the Latin urban legio omnia vincit (Urban legion, everything wins), a derivation of a Latin phrase spoken by the Roman Emperor Julius Caesar.

In the mid-1990s, when it still did not have its own repertoire, the band from Rio Grande do Sul played covers of classic bands such as the Rolling Stones and the Beatles. To then decide which songs would be performed at each show, it was a “big dogfight”. Okay, the name was decided.

The group carried the name when it started to have its own songs, including hits like “You Don’t Know What You Lost”, from 2005. In 2017, Cachorro Grande started its farewell tour.

When a band is born, you imagine that its members spent a lot of time trying to choose the best possible name, right? But Herbert Vianna, João Barone and Bi Ribeiro did the opposite. They wanted a bad name. Too bad.

“We had an internal competition to see who could come up with the worst possible name”, said vocalist and guitarist Herbert Vianna. “It was supposed to be the most ridiculous, most pitiful name. And it came out of Bi’s head, ”he recalled.

The name becomes even more mysterious when we know that there is no engineer in the band created in Porto Alegre in 1984. In fact, the classic formation of the group led by Humberto Gessinger had architecture students, who named it that way because of an old feud with the engineering class.

“Every architecture student is kind of arrogant. And there were these engineering people who wore surfer clothes and we called them engineers just to piss them off. And even engineers from Hawaii”.

German pilot Manfred Albrecht von Richthofen was a legend of the First World War with his 80 battle victories. His fame has gone down through history and into pop culture. Known as Barão Vermelho, Von Richthofen inspired a story about the dog Snoopy, star of the series “Peanuts” who, in turn, would also have served as a source to baptize the group that revealed Cazuza and Frejat.

Cazuza himself, however, stated in an interview with journalist Glória Maria that the name was chosen for no other reason than its sound.

Do you know who baptized the band that revealed the singer Rita Lee? Ronnie Von. That’s right, the former singer and now TV presenter suggested the name to Rita, Sergio Dias and Arnaldo Baptista inspired by the book “O Império dos Mutantes”, by science fiction writer Stefan Wul.

The baptism took place on October 15, 1966, when the trio (which had once been a sextet) went to perform on Ronnie’s TV show, who at the time was an idol competing with Roberto Carlos. It was on the attraction, called “O Pequeno Mundo de Ronnie Von” that the group, formerly called O’Seis, started using Os Mutantes. For no particular reason. Just for the sound of the name.

The band that revealed the singer Ney Matogrosso to the country was created in 1970 and its name came from the head of João Ricardo — another of the three members. Even before the group appeared, he was in Ubatuba, on the coast of São Paulo, and saw a sign of an emporium swinging — and on it was written “dry and wet products”. The contrast and sound of the words pleased.

Which of these bands is your favorite? Is there any other strange names you know? Comment!