This is probably only going to be of any use to fledgling bands, but I think it's an important thing to understand.
These days the most important thing about naming your band is to make it as Google-able as possible. It's paramount.
A couple of years ago I, and the guys I was in a band with, made this exact mistake. We came up with a band-name at practice, and thought it conveyed something about our sound and aesthetic.
The name was chose was Black Bear Saloon. Or The Black Bear Saloon. There was a bit of debate about whether or not it required the definitive article or not, my preference being to have it without - it means something different each way.
Anyway, I went home and googled the name, and found that there was a bar chain on the eastern sea-board of the USA with the same name. These fellas:
We had a bit of a chat about it amongst ourselves and decided that since they were a bar and we were a band, it shouldn't make a difference. Off I went to buy a domain - theblackbearsaloon.com
Unfortunately, I hadn't considered how easy we'd be to find on the internet.
A short explanation is probably required as to how Google works. The Google algorithm, while a bit of a secret sauce, is based on the notion that the more links your page has going to it, the more likely it is that your page is relevant to the search term you asked it for.
In the case of Black Bear Saloon, the bar had a huge head start. They had links from restaurant reviews, gig listings, Facebook links, advertising... any number of references.
We, at that stage, had none.
Also, we seemed to get plenty of emails from people who wanted to know about drinks promotions or venue hire...
Over time we added various web presences, including MySpace, Twitter, Facebook and mentions of ourselves on Fastfude, the largest music community website in Northern Ireland. We had online reviews from blogs, links from the likes of the BBC and Kerrang!... and still we were never the top result when you googled 'Black Bear Saloon'. In fact, it was only last week that I noticed that Google had starting spitting out our blog and website as the top two results, followed by loads of links to various branches of the bar chain.
Of course, we split up a few months ago, so it's pointless now.
Have a good, long think about what you name yourself. A short while ago on Fastfude there was a guy from a band called The C64s asking if they should keep their name. The opinion was a pretty resounding 'no' - everyone knows that a C64 is a really popular home computer from the '80s. Interestingly, adding the definitive article to the start of the search throws up the correct result - Google has definitely got a lot better at figuring out what you're looking for.
But why take the chance?
Using a well known phrase, or referring to a quote or other form of art or entity is essentially entering yourself into a competition with it for Google placement. Much better to come up with your own original name, something that has no prior existence online or, at the very least, is fairly obscure.
Comply or Die are one of my favourite local bands, and have possibly fallen foul of this exact phenomenon - searching for their name without any clarification brings up a page full of references to the famous race-horse. There also seems to be another band with the same name...
Of course, the obvious answer to all this is that the person searching will be able to find you if they're looking properly. My philosophy though is always to assume that most people are idiots, and to make things as easy for them as possible. The less friction they have to encounter in searching for you the better it is.
And anyway, it's fun coming up with esoteric band names. Just try to avoid being funny...
