Coldplay's name was donated by them by a fellow student at UCL, who had been using it for his group but didn't want it anymore because he found it too depressing. Had he not given up the name, Coldplay might have been called Starfish or Stepney Green. Interesting fact: Keane's Tim Rice-Oxley also studied at UCL - in fact, he was invited to join the fledgling Coldplay, but turned the offer down.

Led Zeppelin were known as The New Yardbirds until October 1968, when they changed their name, inspired by a sarcastic comment by The Who's Keith Moon, who predicted the supergroup would "Go over like a lead Zeppelin". At the suggestion of manager Peter Grant, the 'a' was dropped from 'lead' in a bid to prevent "thick Americans" from pronouncing it 'leed zeppelin'.

Franz Ferdinand are named after the Austrian Archduke whose assassination sparked the international crisis that led to the First World War. The band chose the name predominantly because they liked the alliterative sound of it, although in an early interview drummer Paul Thomson said: "I like the idea that, if we become popular, maybe the words Franz Ferdinand will make people think of the band instead of the historical figure."

Formerly known as Rain, it was Liam Gallagher who suggested the name Oasis, inspired by an Inspiral Carpets tour poster which hung in the Gallagher brothers' bedroom. One of the venues the poster listed was the Oasis Leisure Centre in Swindon.

The Rolling Stones took their name from from the Howlin' Wolf blues song 'Rolling Stone' - Keith Richards was a fan of the version recorded by Muddy Waters.

In their earliest incarnation Nirvana went through a series of names, including Skid Row, Pen Cap Chew, and Ted Ed Fred. They finally settled on Nirvana (meaning a state of ultimate bliss) in early 1988. Cobain explained the choice thus: "I wanted a name that was kind of beautiful or nice and pretty instead of a mean, raunchy punk rock name."

Noah And The Whale is a marriage of the title of one of the band’s favourite films, 'The Squid and the Whale', and the director of said film’s name (Noah Baumbach). They are also fans of film director, Wes Anderson, who helped produce 'The Squid and the Whale.'

Death Cab For Cutie named themselves after a song written by Neil Innes and Vivienne Stanshall and performed by their group the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band in the Beatles’ 1967 film 'Magical Mystery Tour'.

Like Radiohead, Blur renamed themselves at the suggestion of their record label. They started out as Circus, before a line-up change encouraged them to switch to Seymour. After being signed to Food Records, label boss Andy Ross drew up a list of suggested names. Blur was one, Whirlpool was another.

Kaiser Chiefs are named after the South African football club Kaizer Chiefs, for whom former Leeds United captain Lucas Radebe once played. The band are big Leeds United supporters. Kaizer Chiefs are one of the biggest teams on the African continent, with an estimated 16 million fans.

According to Mike D, Beastie Boys was originally an acronym standing for "Boys Entering Anarchistic States Towards Internal Excellence," and the initials B.B. were intended to mimic Washington DC hardcore punk band Bad Brains. However, other members of the band have suggested that these factors were afterthoughts.

Guns N' Roses is an elision of two earlier band names, LA Guns and Hollywood Rose. The latter band were named after their frontman, Axl Rose. LA Guns were a rival Hollywood band, whose guitarist Tracii Guns left to form Guns N' Roses, but was later replaced by Slash.

Long rumoured to be a reference to scoring cocaine, Snow Patrol is the third moniker Gary Lightbody's band have gone under. Originally formed in 1994 as Shrug, they became Polar Bear the following year, before settling on Snow Patrol in mid-1997.

CSS is an acronym for Cansei de Ser Sexy, literally "I got tired of being sexy" in Portuguese. The Brazilian band supposedly took their name from a quote by Beyoncé, although no-one has ever tracked down an interview in which she said this.

The Ting Tings are named after a Chinese former shop assistant colleague of singer Katie White's. The band have experienced much success in Japan, and were perturbed to discover that their name means "small, cute penis" in Japanese.