Band names often come from odd places. A few of the best known came from the pages of a novel or the credits of a movie, picked up by musicians who liked how the words sounded.
Some of these choices were playful, and others were deliberately dark. Here are nine acts whose names trace back to a book or a film.
Steely Dan
Walter Becker and Donald Fagen took the name from William S. Burroughs and his 1959 novel Naked Lunch. In the book, Steely Dan III from Yokohama is the name of a steam powered device, and the joke was not subtle. The pair met as students at Bard College in New York.
The band’s debut album, Can’t Buy a Thrill, arrived in 1972. Becker died in 2017, and Fagen has continued to perform under the Steely Dan name. The literary reference stayed a piece of rock trivia rather than a defining theme of the music.
Duran Duran
The Birmingham group borrowed its name from the 1968 film Barbarella, directed by Roger Vadim. A villain in the movie is called Dr. Durand Durand, and the band shortened the spelling slightly. Keyboardist Nick Rhodes and bassist John Taylor were the core of the early lineup.
The band formed in 1978 and became one of the defining acts of the early MTV era. Duran Duran were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2022. Few groups wear their film connection so openly in the name itself.
Joy Division
The name came from House of Dolls, a 1955 novel by the writer who published as Ka-Tzetnik 135633. The book describes the Joy Divisions, groups of women forced into sexual slavery in Nazi concentration camps. The band had earlier gone by Warsaw, then changed its name in 1978.
The choice drew criticism from some listeners, then and since. The group from Salford, England, ended when singer Ian Curtis died in 1980. The surviving members went on to form New Order.
Steppenwolf
This act took its name from Hermann Hesse’s 1927 novel Steppenwolf. The book follows a man torn between his intellectual side and his wilder instincts. The band formed in Los Angeles in 1967 and was led by singer John Kay.
Their best known song is Born to Be Wild. It reached a huge audience after appearing in the 1969 film Easy Rider. Hesse’s novel was already a favorite among counterculture readers of the period.
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Heaven 17
The Sheffield synth pop group named itself after a fictional band in Anthony Burgess’s novel A Clockwork Orange. In the story, a character mentions the band on a record shop wall. Stanley Kubrick’s 1971 film adaptation kept the reference.
The members had come from The Human League before forming their own group around 1980. Their name made it clear they were fans of dystopian fiction. Temptation remains their best known single.
Uriah Heep
The British rock band chose a name from Charles Dickens. Uriah Heep is the scheming, falsely humble clerk in David Copperfield. The group formed in London in 1969 and settled on the name before it recorded its first album.
The Dickens character is famous for his insincerity, which made the name an unusual pick for a hard rock act. Uriah Heep became known for heavy guitar and organ driven sounds in the 1970s. The band has continued to tour for decades.
The Doors
The name comes from Aldous Huxley’s The Doors of Perception, a 1954 book about his experiences with mescaline. Huxley’s title in turn drew on a line from the poet William Blake. Jim Morrison and keyboardist Ray Manzarek formed the group in Los Angeles in 1965.
The choice suited a band that treated lyrics as poetry. Their self titled debut album came out in 1967. The literary roots of the name were part of the group’s image from the start.
Mott the Hoople
The band took its name from a 1966 novel by Willard Manus titled Mott the Hoople. Singer Ian Hunter and his bandmates formed the group in England in the late 1960s. The name was suggested by their producer Guy Stevens, who liked the book.
David Bowie later gave the group a boost by writing All the Young Dudes for them in 1972. That song became their biggest hit. The odd, memorable name helped them stand out in a crowded glam rock era.
Belle and Sebastian
The Glasgow group formed in 1996 and borrowed its name from Belle et Sébastien, a French story by Cécile Aubry about a boy and his dog. The story was adapted into a television series in the 1960s that was later shown in several countries. The band’s gentle, bookish sound fit the reference well.
Their early albums, including Tigermilk and If You’re Feeling Sinister, built a loyal following. Both were released in 1996. The name remains one of the more charming choices from the indie scene of the 1990s.
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