Although acronymous band names can sometimes flow nicely off the tongue, they do leave much to the imagination. One of my earlier favorite bands, R.E.M., has always had their name poked and prodded by fans and critics alike.
The most common definition of the acronym R.E.M. is the medical term “Rapid Eye Movement” which describes a phase of sleep. For the band, it’s often been joked as “Rear Entry Men” (although that might only apply to the lead singer Michael Stipe).
Here are some of the better R.E.M. acronyms that our Acronym Generator made.
- Rare Egg Mansion
- Ruthless Enema Master
- Raw Erotic Monastery
- Radically Excessive Midgets
- Religious Entrance Marble
- Royal Empty Memory
- Reflex Eagle Morality
View More "R.E.M." Acronym Generations
Anyone know of any other commonly speculated acronyms for R.E.M.?
You might first guess that a band named "me & a friend" was a duo, but ironically it was a power trio that played in Southern Oregon from 1995 to 1996. The story of how this name came to be is as follows…
Initially, two musicians recorded a demo for a high school project. When one of the musicians was later sharing the demo with a drunk fraternity buddy in college, he asked who the band was. His reply was "me & a friend."
The confused guy replied, "I’ve never heard of them before. They’re really good."
The musician tried to clarify that it wasn’t the name of a band but the drunk man couldn’t understand. No matter how he tried to explain it, the guy continued to happily bob his head to the beat of a band he thought was named "me and a friend."
Eventually, the two musicians reunited and added a drummer and took on the name given to them by the drunk frat boy.
If you have a funny or interesting story of how your band got named, let us know. If it’s good, we’ll post it right here in the Band Name Blog!
I don’t recommend giving your band an excessively long name. I’m not referring to names with two parts like "Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers"
or "Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention" that flow — but rather the flat-out, unnecessarily long band names.
Here are some examples:
- When People Were Shorter and Lived Near the Water (9 words, 49 characters)
- The Presidents of the United States of America (8 words, 46 characters)
- …And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead (10 words, 44 characters including ellipsis)
- I Love You But I’ve Chosen Darkness (7 words, 35 characters)
- I Can Lick Any SOB In The House (8 words, 31 characters)
While "The Presidents of the United States of America" can be nicknamed and referenced as "The Presidents,"
the rest of the names don’t have a lot of options unless you want to go the Excessively Long Acronym route.
Here are some reasons to avoid a long name for your band:
- Does not flow in conversation
- Can be difficult to remember
- Often does not sound like a band name
- Website domain name will need to be different than your name (unless you want to make the mistake of using the actual long version) Note: There is a 67-character limit on domain names
I’d like to add that the occasional song or album with a long name is okay, but Fiona Apple went too far with her "When the Pawn" album title that is 450+ characters in length!
What do you guys think? Any other long band names that are worth noting? Do you have a long-winded band name?
