The Ongoing History of New Music, episode 1054: 60 More Band Name Origins in 60 Minutes

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et me tell the story again. In 2007, a couple of listeners asked if I would do another Ongoing History episode on the origins of band names. I’d done a few in the past, but it was certainly time to update things.

This time, though, I was struck with a thought: what do you call the study of the names musical groups choose? Rock music had been around for more than 50 years at that point, so someone must have come up with a term, right?

The study of word origins is called “etymology.” If you’re looking at place names, then you’re into “toponymy” or “toponomastics.”

We get close with the word for the study of personal names—that’s called “onomastics” or “anthroponymy.” If we look at just surnames, that’s called “patronymics.” But much to my surprise, there was no term for “how a band got their name.” This struck me as a very, very wrong and a giant oversight in the field of linguistics.

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So I called up some academics specializing in linguistics, along with branding experts across North America. They put their heads together and returned with a suggestion: “bandomynology.”

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Since then, I’ve been on a mission to use this word as much as possible. I want it to catch on so that someday, it will end up in the Oxford English Dictionary. So far, though, the OED people won’t take my calls.

The only way to make this happen is to keep pushing “bandomynology” out into the public. Remember it, use it, tell your friends about it. And to help things along, here’s another semi-academic program on “bandomynology” to follow up on the last show on the topic, which was in 2017.

This is 60 More Band Name Origins in 60 Minutes.

Songs heard on this show:

• • Wolfmother, The Joker and the Thief
  • Blink-182, What’s My Age Again?
  • That Song, Big Wreck
  • Siouxsie and the Banshees, Christine
  • Silversun Pickups, Lazy Eye
  • Rainbow Butt Monkeys, Circles
  • OMD, If You Leave
  • Butthole Surfers, Pepper
  • Wet Leg, Catch My Fists
  • Slightly Stoopid, Dabbington

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