Wacky Band Names

In 1989, Lloyd Dobler held an obnoxiously large boom box over his head outside Diane Court's window and blasted "In Your Eyes" to prove to her how much he loved her. Somehow this was viewed as romantic by an entire generation of women who now expect equally grandiose gestures from their trench-coat-wearing boyfriends. Years later, five dudes from Baltimore named their band the Lloyd Dobler Effect for no apparent reason other than they thought it sounded cool. They're not alone in finding inspiration for their band's name in pop culture. Check out these unfortunate band monikers.

THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA

The Devil Wears Prada was formed in 2005, almost two years before the release of the 2006 romantic comedy of the same name but two years after the release of the famous chick-lit novel the movie was based on. Someone was wandering around Borders one day, saw a book on the shelf, and said, "Hmmm, sounds like a lame name for a metal­core band." When the movie came out, the name got even lamer and, worse, embarrassing.

FIVE FINGER DEATH PUNCH

When the urge to make a pop-culture reference when naming your band strikes you, take a cue from Rob Zombie of White Zombie's rule book: The more obscure the reference, the better it will work. White Zombie, for example, is the name of a forgotten 1932 horror classic, even though most people think it's just a kick-ass band. Five Finger Death Punch must not have known any better. One year after the film Kill Bill came out, these guys named their band after the super-secret kung-fu death move. Not only uncreative and uninspired but also just plain sad.

ATREYU

This is the name of the boy warrior from The Neverending Story. Why name your screamcore band Atreyu? Well, 'cause it sounds only slightly less lame than Falkor, the name of the talking, white-haired luckdragon Atreyu flew around on — duh! To be fair, the movie rocks. Atreyu the band doesn't even compare.

BARONESS

The boys in this Savannah, Georgia,-based grindcore band like to be coy about where they got the idea for their name, as if no one else can guess. Maybe they feel stupid because they went with Baroness over the Destro.

NERF HERDER

Han Solo was a scruffy-faced nerf herder, according to Princess Leia. Nerf Herder, the band, dug the reference, and for about one week, we did too. Then every other wannabe pop-punk band in America decided to steal its name from the Star Wars trilogy. Another one pops up every 16 seconds. Hell, six popped up while we were writing this blurb about Nerf Herder. Shit, another two while typing that last sentence...