Is it okay to have the same name as a band if that band didn't do very well? - General

My guitar player just came up with an awesome band name, and we love it, but it's already being used by a kind of obscure band who had a couple releases then kind of dropped off the map. I mean, I know of two bands called Temples (one being psychedelic pop rock, the other post-rock), but it still feels weird. I only found out they existed by googling them to make sure the name wasn't taken, but I don't dare tell them yet. I don't want to drop the name, but the people we're "copying" aren't really a big deal yet/anymore, and would be drowned out by our presence if we took off. We have other names we'd play as, some from other projects my guitar player and I were in, but yeah.

Are they in the same area/genre as you? If not you're probably good to go

Not really I suppose, but there's some overlap in our influences I guess. To be fair the name was "unique" to us, as we'd never heard of the other band until after the name came to be. Guitar player said he saw his bottle of _______ next to a _______ and got the idea, which based on who he is, is pretty believable :v

Are they active? If not it shouldn't be too much of a big deal.

Depending on you guy's goals and aspirations, just go with whatever name you guys like, especially if the existing band names are as obscure as you're making them sound. Unless you think they have enough SEO power to prevent people from finding you guys. Not to be blunt, but chances are you guys will remain just as obscure and there will never be an issue. If somehow an issue DOES come up you can always change your name then.

i think we need to know who they are so we can give an informed opinion

I don't think it would be that big of a deal.

Dinosaur Jr originally just wanted to be called Dinosaur but ran into some legal trouble and had to change their name.

If they were ever published then basically it's a no, you would run into legal troubles eventually if you got big.

i don't think it's much of an issue for now, if issues do arise then you can always make a minor change to your name to make it your own tbh i just release my shit under meanwhile even though there's like 50 odd bands with the name already

From the perspective of someone who listens to a lot of more or less underground music: it's annoying as shit when bands use unimaginative or non-unique names. Not for any snobby ~artistic~ reasons, but from a purely practical standpoint. It makes it a lot harder than it has to be to actually find your music. Ideally, you want the first result when you google [band name] to be a link to your band's webpage/bandcamp/whatever other platform your music is on.

The Grateful Dead were originally "The Warlocks" until they found out there was another band that was already recording under the same name. And then THAT band ended up changing THEIR name to "The Velvet Underground" the rest is history.

Well ours is pretty imaginative :v it's equal parts witty and cheeky, and definitely something unique enough that even I, the guy who has 10000 band names in his head from years past, said "shit I wouldn't have thought of that!" We decided we're not about to change our band name because there's a band that disappeared 7 years ago with the same name and like one album release and no following. We're sticking by the "Temples" example and just knowing that people will know the difference :V

Maybe put "The" in front of it - The Temples

Eh adding "The" would suck with our name :V The "Temples" thing is just my example because this is Temples and this is also Temples. The bands themselves are very separate, and us vs the other band would be as well.

Name your band Timpuls.

you're killing me, please just tell us what it is

Easy way to pass your name- Make it ａｅｓｔｈｅｔｉｃ　オツー

Pink Floyd almost named Dark Side of the Moon 'Eclipse' because of a recently-released DSOTM album by some other band. They went back to the name after the other album failed to make any mark. Now, that's an album rather than a band name, and you guys aren't Pink Floyd (yet), but still, food for thought.

I'm pretty sure Shelter Song was the theme for Dallas's hockey team for a little while, not all that obscure you can change it up a little but then you run into the problem of other, more obscure bands with similar names One More Day And One More Night (Kack Klick) | Temple Songs I remember finding a band called the Rich Girls online, good stuff, and getting super pumped when the Rich Girls were playing a show nearby soon so I took some friends ready to have a good night and it turns out it was a completely different band doing covers of Hall and Oates

tbh this might unironically help a bit. I'll take to the typewriter and pop that out for the guys lol

As far as I remember Blink-182 also ended up getting their 182 because of an irish band with the same name threatening legal action, so not picking a name that's already being used by someone is probably the best course of action to prevent headaches later on.

If you want a perfect example of how not to name your band, take a look at this disaster: https://www.last.fm/music/Dead+Hand Three bands with the same name, one is sludge metal, the second is crust punk/hardcore/sludge, and the third is some kind of a sludge/hardcore thing as well. Yeah people totally won't get confused there, fuck me sideways. If you go ahead and search on Bandcamp, you'll find a couple more unrelated bands with the same name.

well Dead Hand is pretty unoriginal :v bands like that just gyeukh confusion

The funniest part about it is, I found out about the third of those bands on r/metal earlier, but it seems like they were using shill accounts to boost upvotes and positive comments. I mean can you believe the stupidity? If you want to get recognition, maybe start out by finding a way to differentiate yourself from these other similar bands that are more popular than you.

I mean, we'll get recognition by putting out music. This other band that we share a name with hasn't released anything in 4 years, I think we're okay.

That comment wasn't specifically aimed at you, it was just a hilarious example of how not to do it. If you're in a completely different genre than the other band so there's no way to confuse the two, you're probably fine.

Ah yeah fair :v and we are kinda, maybe we share like 20% overlap? I'm super not worried about it anymore lol

is your band name thrush? because youre an irritating cunt

no, but there is one, and their music is kind of irritating Thrush