R.E.M.

Going nameless for a long time, several of the potential outfits they went with before claiming their stake as R.E.M. included Twisted Kites, Nego Wives, and Cans Of Piss. (Photo by Sean Gardner/Getty Images)

The Who

The Who had quite the journey before becoming known as The Who. Starting out as a Dixieland Jazz project called The Confederates by Pete Townshend and John Entwistle, they became known as The Detour after meeting Roger Daltrey. After changing their name to The Who in February 1964, they were briefly known as Zoot Suit/I’m The Face in the summer of 1964. (Photo by Bradley Kanaris/Getty Images)

The Grateful Dead

According to bassist Phil Lesh, Grateful Dead was chosen by Jerry Garcia after he picked up a dictionary. Prior to this, members of the group were left over from a jug band called Mother McCree’s Uptown Jug Champion. The band performed under the name The Warlocks for their first gig at Magoo’s Pizza. (Photo by Cory Schwartz/Getty Images)

Blur

Originally formed as an offshoot to the band Circus, they renamed themselves as Seymour after JD Salinger’s Seymour: An Introduction. Blur was suggested to them after they were discovered by Food Records. (Photo by Samir Hussein/Getty Images)

Bloc Party

Before settling on Bloc Party in 2003, the group was billed as Union, Superheroes Of BMX, The Angel Range, and Diet. (Photo by Simone Joyner/Getty Images)

Sonic Youth

Male Bonding, The Arcadians, and Red Milk were all names that the group went by. (Photo by Juan Naharro Gimenez/Getty Images)

Pink Floyd

The name Pink Floyd was derived as a combination of blues artists Pink Anderson and Floyd Council. The group was forced to choose a new name while still under the moniker The Tea Set afterfinding out another group of the same name was performing at the same show. Guitarist Syd Barrett came up with “The Pink Floyd Sound” and the rest is history. (Photo Jeff Fusco/Getty Images)

The Goo Goo Dolls

The Buffalo, NY outfit has had its string of mainstream pop hits. Do you think they would still be as successful if they went by their former name The Sex Maggots? (Photo by Streeter Lecka/Getty Images)

Coldplay

For much of the flak the group gets, they had the most masculine name of any group on this list by first being known as Pectoralz. After changing the name to Starfish, they decided Coldplay would be a good fit after a fellow student suggest Chris Martin and co. use his former band’s name. (Photo by Gareth Cattermole/Getty Images)

Oasis

The group originally named themselves The Rain after The Beatles song “Rain.” Liam Gallagher got the name Oasis from a Inspiral Carpets tour poster. (Photo by Jeff Fusco/Getty Images)