die Vedder claimed in an early interview that the name was a reference to his great-grand-
mother Pearl Brunner. In 2006 guitarist Mike McCready said that bass player Jeff Ament
came up with "Pearl" and that "Jam" was added after seeing Neil Young live.
- Pink Floyd—Playing under multiple names, including "Tea Set", when the band found
themselves on the same bill as another band with the same name, Syd Barrett came up
with the alternative name The Pink Floyd Sound, after two blues musicians, Pink Ander-
son and Floyd Council. For a time, they oscillated between The Tea Set and The Pink
Floyd Sound, with the latter name eventually winning out. The Sound was dropped fairly
quickly - Queen–Were originally called Smile. Singer Freddie Mercury came up with the new
name for the band, later saying: "Years ago I thought up the name 'Queen' ... It's just a
name, but it's very regal obviously, and it sounds splendid ... It's a strong name, very uni-
versal and immediate. It had a lot of visual potential and was open to all sorts of interpre-
tations. I was certainly aware of gay connotations, but that was just one face of it."
- Queensrÿche–Were originally called "The Mob". The name is derived from a song on
their EP "Queen of the Reich", and is the only known use of the letter Y with an umlaut in
English. It was used to soften "Queensreich" and not confuse the band with Nazism. - Radiohead–originally known as "On a Friday," the band was given two weeks after
signing to Parlophone to change their name. The band renamed themselves after the 1986
Talking Heads song "Radio Head" on the album True Stories, claiming it as the "least an-
noying song" from the album. - Rage Against the Machine–When the band formed in 1991, they chose the name of a
song Zack de la Rocha had written for his old band, Inside Out.