List of bands named after places
A band may name itself after a place for any combination of the following reasons:
* to indicate geographic origin (conveying pride or authenticity);
* to invoke IDeaS (such as religious, political, or environmental characteristics) associated with that place;
* simply because the name is "catchy" and sounds good.
Bands named after real places
* Aberdeen, after the city of Aberdeen
* Aberfeldy, after the Scottish town
* Alabama, after the U.S. state of Alabama
* , after the U.S. state of Alaska
* Alcatrazz, after the island and prison in San Francisco Bay.
* All Saints, after All Saints Road, W11, London
* Alter Bridge, after a bridge on Alter Road in Detroit, Michigan
* America, after the continent of America
* Antietam, after the American Civil War Battle of Antietam, which was named after Antietam Creek, where it took place
* Arcturus named after the star Arcturus
* Arizona, after the U.S. state of Arizona (Norwegian hard rock band, 1985-88, aka: Bad).
* Asia, after the continent of Asia
* Atlanta, after the U.S. city of Atlanta, Georgia
* Backstreet Boys, after Back Street Market, a shopping area in Orlando, Florida
* Barcelona, after the city of Barcelona
* Bay City Rollers, after Bay City, Michigan
* Bayside, after Bayside, Queens in New York City
* The Belmonts, after Belmont Street in The Bronx
* Beirut, after the city of Beirut
* Berlin, after the city of Berlin
* and , both after the city of Bethlehem
* Black Oak Arkansas, after the U.S. town of Black Oak, Arkansas
* Blairsville, after the town of Blairsville, Pennsylvania
* The Blue Nile, after the Blue Nile river.
* The Bosstones, after Boston, Massachusetts. See also The Mighty Mighty Bosstones.
* Boston, after the city of Boston
* Brazzaville and Brazzaville, after the city of Brazzaville
* Briskeby, after a neighbourhood in the borough Frogner in Oslo, Norway
* Bush, after Shepherd's Bush, a district of London
* Byzantine, after the former Byzantine Empire
* Cabaret Voltaire, after the Cabaret Voltaire, a night club in Zürich
* Café Tacuba, after a hundred-year-old Mexico City restaurant
* Cairo, after the city of Cairo
* Calexico, after the city of Calexico, California
* Chelsea, named after Chelsea, part of London. (There were several bands with this name.)
* Chicago, after the city of Chicago (originally Chicago Transit Authority)
* Chilliwack, after the town of Chilliwack in British Columbia
* Cinder Road after the road in Timonium, Maryland
* Cruachan, after the ancient capital of the kingdom of Connacht in Ireland.
* Cuba, after the nation of Cuba (band later became Air Cuba)
* Cypress Hill, after a location in South Gate, California
* Danzig is the German name for the Polish city of , though the band got its name by way of Glenn Danzig.
* Defiance, Ohio, named after the city of Defiance, Ohio.
* Delaware, after the U.S. state of Delaware
* Dessau, after the German town.
* Dimmu Borgir, after an area of lava formations near Mývatn, Iceland
* Dover, named after the town and port of Dover in England, United Kingdom
* Dream Theater, after a now-demolished cinema in Monterey, California
* Dru Hill, after Druid Hill Park, a section of Baltimore, Maryland
* The Dubrovniks, after Dubrovnik, a city Croatia
* Earlimart after Earlimart, California
* Earth, after the planet Earth (also an early name of Black Sabbath)
* East 17, after the postcode for the London community of Walthamstow
* Easterhouse after Easterhouse, a suburb of Glasgow
* Eastern Lane named after a street in Berwick Upon Tweed.
* Egypt, after the name of the country Egypt
* Enderby after Enderby Land, Antarctica
* Enon after Enon, Ohio
* E Street Band, after E Street in Belmar, New Jersey
* Europe, after the continent of Europe
* Everything but the Girl, after an old-fashioned furniture shop in Hull, England
* Ezo, after the island of (formerly known as Eizo)
* Fountains of Wayne, after a lawn ornament store in Wayne, New Jersey
* Geneva, after the city of Geneva, Switzerland
* Gondwanaland, after the prehistoric continent of Gondwanaland
* Gorky Park, after Gorky Park, an amusement park in Moscow
* Gravenhurst, after the city of Gravenhurst, Ontario
* Great Lakes, after the Great Lakes. (There was also a 1960s psychedelic band called The Great Lakes.)
* Groom Lake, after a large dry salt flat known as Groom Lake in Nevada, where Area 51 is located.
* The Greenberry Woods, after a housing development near the University of Maryland.
* Green River, after the Green River in the U.S. state of Washington (via the nickname of serial killer Gary Ridgway)
* Halifax, named after Halifax, a city in Canada
* The Harrisons, named after Harrison Road, Hillsborough, Sheffield UK
* Hatfield and the North, named after Hatfield, Hertfordshire, England, and more specifically after road signs pointing to "Hatfield and the North"
* Hedley, after the town of Hedley, British Columbia,
* Highway 101, after US Route 101 on the west coast of the United States
* Hiroshima, after the city of Hiroshima
* Hollenthon, after the town of Hollenthon, Austria
* The Holloways after the inner-city district of Holloway in the London Borough of Islington
* Horsell Common named after a place near a village in Surrey, England, and setting in H. G. Wells's 'War of the Worlds'
* H-Town, after a common nickname for Houston, Texas
* Idaho, after the U.S. state of Idaho
* The Iveys after a street in Swansea, Wales (band later became Badfinger)
* Japan, after the nation of Japan
* Two bands named Jerusalem, after the city of Jerusalem
* Kamchatka, after the volcanically active Russian Kamchatka Peninsula
* Kansas, after the U.S. state of Kansas
* Kashmir, after the Led Zeppelin song "Kashmir," which is in turn named after Kashmir, a region of South Asia
* Kensington Market, after the Kensington Market neighbourhood in Toronto, Ontario
* Kingston Trio, after Kingston, Jamaica; the group considered itself at first to be primarily a calypso group.
* The Knickerbockers, after Knickerbocker Road in Bergenfield, New Jersey
* Kohima, band in Wisconsin, USA named after the town of Kohima in India
* Laibach, after the German-language name of Ljubljana, Slovenia
* Leningrad, after the Russian city of Saint Petersburg (formerly known as Leningrad)
* Lindisfarne, after Lindisfarne, an island off the Northumberland coast accessible by vehicles at low tide.
* Linkin Park, after a park (now known as Christine Reed Park) in Santa Monica, California (spelling was changed from Lincoln to Linkin because the domain name lincolnpark.com was unavailable)
* Little River Band, after Little River, Victoria, Australia
* London, after the city of London
* Lorene Drive, after a street in Victorville, CA
* Luxembourg, after the country Luxembourg
* The Manhattan Transfer, after John Dos Passos's novel Manhattan Transfer, which is in turn named after the Manhattan Transfer train station in New York City
* The Manhattans, after Manhattan, a borough of New York City
* Manitoba, after the Canadian province of Manitoba (now recording as Caribou for legal reasons)
* Manassas, after Manassas, Virginia
* Mandalay, after the city Mandalay in Burma
* Marcy Playground, after the playground of Marcy Open School in the U.S. city of Minneapolis
* Mars, after the planet Mars
* Matmatah, french rock band named after a berber village in southern Tunisia Matmata.
* Maxïmo Park, after Maximo Gomez Park, a meeting place for Cuban revolutionaries
* Memphis, after the town of Memphis, Tennessee.
* Minsk, after Minsk, the capital of Belarus
* Mir, after the Russian space station of the same name
* Missouri, after the U.S. state of Missouri
* MC5, after Detroit, Michigan, the "Motor City"
* Mojave 3, after the Mojave Desert
* Monaco, after the Principality of Monaco
* Mount Rushmore, after the U.S. monument Mount Rushmore
* Mount Shasta, after Mount Shasta, California
* Münchener Freiheit, after a place in Munich in Germany
* Myslovitz, after the Polish town of
* Nantucket, after the island of Nantucket in Massachusetts
* Nazareth, after the city of Nazareth
* New England, quartet formed around Boston New England (produced by Paul Stanley of Kiss)
* New York Dolls, after New York Dolls Hospital, a toy repair shop
* Nickel Creek, after a small town of the same name in Texas
* Nile, after the river Nile
* Oasis, after the Oasis Leisure Centre in Swindon, England; or, according to some sources, a nightclub in Manchester
* Of Montreal, after the city of Montreal
* 112, after the Atlanta club, Club 112
* Oregon, after the U.S. state of Oregon
* Orleans, after the city of New Orleans
* O-Town, after a common nickname for Orlando, Florida
* Over the Rhine, after the Over-the-Rhine neighborhood in the band's hometown of
* The Paddingtons after the area of Paddington in the City of Westminster, London
* Palm Springs, after the desert city in Riverside County, California
* Paloalto, after the preschool attended by singer James Grundler (not after Palo Alto, California, as commonly assumed)
* PANKOW, after Pankow, a borough of Berlin
* Pantera - originally Pantego, a Texas town
* Paris, Texas, after the U.S. town of Paris, Texas
* Parkway Drive, after a street in Byron Bay, Australia
* Philpot after Philpot, KY, U.S.A.
* Porterville, after Porterville, California.
* Portishead, after the English town of Portishead, Somerset
* Queen City Kids, after the nickname for Regina, Saskatchewan
* Rammstein, after the German city of Ramstein via the Ramstein airshow disaster at Ramstein Air Base in 1988
* Rascal Flatts, after a geological formation near Catoosa, Oklahoma
* , after the Icelandic city of Reykjavík
* Salem, after the former name of Jerusalem
* Sawyer Brown, after Sawyer Brown Road in the Bellevue section of Nashville, Tennessee
* Scrantonicity, a portmanteau of Scranton, Pennsylvania and the 1983 Police album Synchronicity.
*Sham 69, named after vandalism on a pub toilet which referred to Horsham and Walton Skins 1969.
* Scrantonicity II, after Scranton, Pennsylvania
* Sidi Bou Said, after the town of Sidi Bou Said in northern Tunisia.
*Sing-Sing, after Sing Sing Correctional Facility, a maximum security prison in Ossining, New York
* Sleater-Kinney, after a road in Lacey, Washington
* Sodom, after the destroyed biblical city Sodom.
* Soho, after Soho, an area of London
* Soundgarden, after the Sound Garden in Seattle, a kinetic sculpture that makes sounds in the wind
* Spain, after the nation of Spain
* Sparta, after the Ancient Greek city of Sparta
* Stalag 17 is named after the Nazi POW camp
* Sugarhill Gang, after the Sugar Hill area of Harlem, New York City
* Sugarland, after the city of Sugar Land, Texas
* Texas, after the U.S. state of Texas (via the title of the Wim Wenders film Paris, Texas)
* Toronto, after the city of Toronto
* Towers of London, after the historic landmark in London, England
* UK, after the United Kingdom
* Ulan Bator, after the capital of Mongolia, Ulaanbaatar
* The United States of America, after the United States of America
* Valencia, after the Spanish city of Valencia
* Venice, after the U.S. city of Venice, California, which in turn is named after Venice in Italy
* Versailles, after the city of Versailles
* Wailing Wall, after the Western Wall in Jerusalem
* Walls of Jericho, after the biblical city of Jericho
* Waltham, after the U.S. city of Waltham, Massachusetts
* Warsaw, after the Polish capital city (band later became Joy Division)
* Whitechapel, after the London city district Whitechapel
* Youngstown, after a city in Ohio
* Yukon, after the Canadian Territory of Yukon
Bands named after fictional or mythological places
* Amon Amarth, after Amon Amarth (Sindarin for Mount Doom) in J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth
* Cirith Ungol, after Cirith Ungol in J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth
* Crystal Castles, after the Crystal Castle from the He-man and She-ra TV shows.
* Eisley, after the spaceport town Mos Eisley on the planet Tatooine in the Star Wars universe.
* Evergreen Terrace, after Evergreen Terrace, a fictional street from The Simpsons
* Ephel Duath, after a mountain range separating Gondor and Mordor in The Lord of the Rings
* Gorgoroth, after plateau in J.R.R. Tolkien's series The Lord of the Rings
* Heldon, a country in Norman Spinrad's novel The Iron Dream
* Idlewild, after a place in the children's book Anne of Green Gables
* Kamelot, after the legendary castle of King Arthur, Camelot
* Knockturn Alley, Maltese band named after the fictional Harry Potter location
* LiLiPUT, after Lilliput, the land of tiny people from Jonathan Swift's novel Gulliver's Travels
* Nakatomi Plaza, after the fictional office building/tower in the movie Die Hard
* Narnia, after C. S. Lewis's fantasy world Narnia
* Opeth, after the ancient city from the novel The Sunbird by Wilbur Smith
* The Shangri-Las, after the fictional utopia Shangri-La
* Styx, after the mythological river Styx
