HOW WERE THE BEATLES CALLED BEATLES…

In 1960, reputedly, John and his best friend at art college, Stu Sutcliffe, came up with the name “The Beatles.” The story goes that the band loved Buddy Holly and his group “the Crickets.” So the two went through several insect names and finally arrived on “Beetles”

The Beatles is a dumb pun. That’s all. They took the idea of naming themselves after an insect like the Crickets, but changed the spelling for a pun on musical beats. It’s a simple as that.

When John wrote a 1961 comical article for a local paper about how he came up with the name “Beatles,” he jokingly said, “It came in a vision- a man appeared on a flaming pie and said unto them ‘from this day on you are Beatles with an a’.”

The first precursor to the Beatles was a skiffle band formed by John Lennon called the Black Jacks. The Black Jacks later evolved into the Quarry Men, which recorded an acetate that is the first known recording of John Lennon, Paul McCartney, or George Harrison.

The final name “The Beatles” was the sixth and final name that the band used. Sixteen year old John Lennon formed a band in 1957 with some school friends and called it The Blackjacks. The band changed its name to the Quarrymen after theirschool – Quarry Bank school.

It was during this late 1950’s period that name changes became frequent. Once, all the members of the group showed up in different colored shirts, so they called themselves “The Rainbows.” At a talent show the boys entered in 1959, they dubbed themselves “Johnny and the Moondogs.” In May of 1960, John and Paul did two small shows by themselves and dubbed themselves “The Nerk Twins.”

What’s in a name? The music spoke for itself, but it’s funny to think of “Penny Lane” or “Nowhere Man” or “Yellow Submarine” by Johnny and the Moondogs

Cynthia Lennon, John’s first wife, mentions in her biographical book:

“To fit with their changing image the boys decided it was time for a new name. We had a hilarious brainstorming session over a beer-soaked table in the Renshaw Hall bar, where we often drank. John loved ‘Buddy Holly and the Crickets’, so they toyed with insect names. It was John who came up with ‘Beetles’. He changed it to ‘Beatles’ because he said if you turned it round it was ‘les beat’, which sounded French and cool. They settled on the ‘Silver Beatles’.”