Bands' Original Names
Before the stadium tours and the platinum records, some of the world's biggest bands went by names hardly anyone remembers. Can you match 12 famous groups to what they called themselves at the start?
About this quiz
Very few bands get their name right the first time. A group of school friends picks something that sounds good in a rehearsal room, a manager or a record label asks for something catchier, a lineup changes, or another act already owns the name. By the time the world hears of them, the old name has become a footnote that only devoted fans know.
Here you get twelve famous bands on one side and twelve early names on the other, spanning rock, pop, grunge and R&B from the late 1950s to the 1990s. Your job is to connect each band to the name it used before it became famous. Each name is the one the band itself used, as recorded in its published history.
To play, click a band and then an early name (or drag a line between them). Clicking a connected item undoes the link, so you can rearrange as you go. Once everything is paired, submit to see which lines turn green. Start with the pairs you are sure about and leave the trickier ones for a process of elimination at the end.
Music · 12 pairs · medium · 3 minutes to play · Played 1 time
More Music quizzes
- 2000s Pop Hits: Guess the Song - Twenty pop anthems from the decade of flip phones, frosted tips and burned CDs. How many can you name by ear?
- One-Second Song Challenge - Eighteen of the most famous songs ever recorded, from rock and soul to reggae, K-pop and bossa nova. You get one second of each. Is that all you need?
- Billboard No. 1 Hits: Guess the Song - Twenty songs that topped the Billboard Hot 100, from the 1960s to the 2020s. Press play and name the artist and the song.
- Boy Bands: Name That Band - Twelve boy band hits from the 80s to today. Press play and pick the band singing it.
- Duets and Covers Venn Diagram - Three music legends, seven songs and a tangle of duets and shared recordings tying them together. Where they overlap, they sang together or put their own stamp on the same tune. Can you untangle who sang what, and with whom?
- Hip-Hop Collabs Venn Diagram - Three of hip-hop's biggest names, seven chart hits and a web of guest verses tying them together. Where the circles overlap, they shared the mic. Can you work out who was on what?
- Foo Fighters Trivia - From Nirvana's drum stool to the 2026 album, how well do you know Dave Grohl's band? 17 questions on the members, the records and the stories.
- Foo Fighters: Which Album? - From "This Is a Call" to "Caught in the Echo", match 12 Foo Fighters songs to the studio album each one comes from.
- Beatles Songs by Album - Sixteen classics from the Fab Four's most celebrated studio years, from folk-rock to psychedelia to their final sessions together. Can you put every one back on the record where it belongs?
- Taylor Swift Albums Timeline - Two decades of eras, reinventions and long-awaited re-recordings that let her reclaim her own catalogue. Can you trace the whole journey from a teenage country debut to the present day, release by release?