The Stories Behind Bands' Names

The Velvet Underground by Michael Leigh was a contemporary pulp paperback about the secret sexual subculture of the early 1960s that Cale's friend Tony Conrad showed the group. MacLise made a suggestion to adopt the title as the band's name, and according to Reed and Morrison the group liked the name, considering it evocative of "underground cinema", and fitting, as Reed had already written "Venus in Furs", a song inspired by Leopold von Sacher-Masoch's book of the same name, dealing with masochism. The band immediately and unanimously adopted the Velvet Underground as its new name in November 1965.

Years ago I thought up the name “Queen” … It’s just a name, but it’s very regal obviously, and it sounds splendid … It’s a strong name, very universal and immediate. It had a lot of visual potential and was open to all sorts of interpretations. I was certainly aware of gay connotations, but that was just one face of it.

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In June 1962 the line-up was: Jagger, Jones, Richards, Stewart, Taylor, and drummer Tony Chapman. According to Richards, Jones christened the band during a phone call to Jazz News. When asked for a band name Jones saw a Muddy Waters LP lying on the floor of which one of the tracks was "Rollin' Stone".

Source: Wikipedia

The legend goes like this: a bunch of people were brainstorming for names. The band members were already so deaf they kept saying, "The who?". Finally, someone suggested the Who as their name.
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'Belle Et Sebastian’ is a novel by Madame Cecile Aubry about a boy Sebastien and his Pyrenees mountain dog Belle. It became famous and popular children’s tv series in France and then in the world in the early seventies. Although it is little to do with the eight of us playing music, that is where the name came from, and we are grateful to Madame Cecile Aubry for letting us use the name until now and we pay homage to her work.

Source: Band's site

I decided to call ourselves The Smiths because it was the most ordinary name, and I think it's time that the ordinary folk of the world showed their faces."

Also the band have stated that it was a reaction against names they considered fancy and pompous such as Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark.
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Numerous explanations of the name's genesis have been offered. In Jon Savage's analysis, "[They] needed a gimmick, some edge to get them attention. Here it was: 'Kinkiness'—something newsy, naughty but just on the borderline of acceptability. In adopting the 'Kinks' as their name at that time, they were participating in a time-honoured pop ritual—fame through outrage." Manager Robert Wace related his side of the story: "I had a friend. ... He thought the group was rather fun. If my memory is correct, he came up with the name just as an idea, as a good way of getting publicity. ... When we went to [the band members] with the name, they were ... absolutely horrified. They said, 'We're not going to be called kinky!'" Ray Davies' account conflicts with Wace's—he recalled that the name was coined by Larry Page, and referenced their "kinky" fashion sense. Davies quoted him as saying, "The way you look, and the clothes you wear, you ought to be called the Kinks." "I've never really liked the name," Ray stated.

Source: Wikipedia