AC/DC
A band member saw AC/DC on a sewing machine. It stood for ‘Alternating Current / Direct Current’. The band didn’t realize it was also slang for bi-sexual, which caused a few misunderstandings in their early days.
Bee Gees
Although the press often refers to them as the ‘Brothers Gibb’, the band said that they took their name from two friends that helped them out in their early days in Australia, Bill Goode and a disc jockey named Bill Gates.
Cilla Black
British singer Cilla Black, had her stage name changed by accident. A reporter for the local paper remembered the wrong colour as her surname while writing a favourable review. Her real name is Cilla White.
Creedence Clearwater Revival
Originally called The Golliwogs, unconfirmed reports say the band took their new name from Norvel Creedence, a friend of band leader John Fogerty. John’s favorite beer was called Clearwater, which, after it disappeared from the market for a time, was re-introduced by another brewery.
The result: Creedence Clearwater Revival.
Rumour has it that Bob chose the name Dillon after the marshall in “Gunsmoke” but he preferred the Dylan Thomas way of spelling it.
Another rumour. The New Yardbirds changed their name after Keith Moon said they would go down like a lead balloon but even bigger.
Robert Zimmerman was a big fan of poet Dylan Thomas and took his name as his own.
When Brian Johnstone was being touted for AC/DC he got a phone call from a woman with a German accent, she said it was a very well known group but couldn’t give the name, “ can’t you just give me the initial “ he asked, “ “ it has dc and ac in the title “ , “ oh, you mean AC/DC” said Johnstone, “ shisa” came the reply…
Brian Jones was on the phone to Jazz News, hyping up their huge break on 12th July 1962, but suddenly realised that the band didn’t have a name when he was asked what the band was called. Quick thinking Jonesy spotted an LP of Muddy Waters and as track 5 was called Rollin’ Stone Blues, so for one night only the band was known as The Rolling Stones, with a line-up of Jagger, Richards, Stewart, “Elmo Lewis” aka Brian Jones, Dick Taylor on bass and Mick Avory (later to join The Kinks) on drums.
The name stuck and the rest is history 
Bob Dylan is a great songwriter but I never really cared for his nasally voice but know most people seem to.
He isn’t too bad on this although not one of his.
The Association
After breaking away from a thirteen member band called “The Men”, someone suggested a name for their new group, “The Aristocrats”.
Singer-songwriter Terry Kirkman’s wife went to the dictionary to look up the word for them and found a better name on the very same page…The Association.
The Bay City Rollers
While searching for a name, they blindly stuck a pin on a map. It landed on Bay City, Michigan.
Canned Heat
According to original Canned Heat drummer Fito de la Parra, the band got the inspiration for the name while sitting around Bob Hite’s house, listening to an old Tommy Johnson record called “Canned Heat Mama”.
Deep Purple
Guitarist Ritchie Blackmore’s grandmother liked the Bing Crosby song “Deep Purple”.
Pink Floyd was derived from combining the first names of two blues musicians, Pinkney “Pink” Anderson and Floyd Council … job done 
