What’s in a name? Not much, according to Sam Rivers of Limp Bizkit. “Somebody said ‘Gimp Bizkit,'” Rivers told SPIN Magazine. “Then Fred [Durst] said ‘Limp Bizkit.’ The next day we were like ‘That sucks, but fuck it.'”

What’s in a name? Everything, if you ask Rage Against the Machine guitarist Tom Morello. “It has always been our intention to cast the nets wide and reach as many people as possible with a radical message,” Morello said in an online chat.

As bands battle for the contexts in which they want their music to be heard, unwritten rules are formed based on how they handle different issues. Some stand much higher on the ladder than others. Government, love and spirituality are all themes that dominate modern music.

With so many decisions to be made about style and content, band naming is seemingly becoming a lost art. Or is it?

Should a name emulate a band’s beliefs and musical style, or is a name pulled out of a hat good enough? Is it possible to get a good idea of what a band sounds like and believes in by simply hearing its name?

What’s in a name? High Note took this question to four local bands in an attempt to get a better understanding of the process of naming a band and what significance a name really holds.

Chad Calek, bassist of local hardcore outfit 35″ Mudder, was quick to voice his opinion on the matter.

“I honestly would say in 99 percent of all cases [a name] has absolutely no relevance whatsoever,” Calek said.

“Korn and Red Hot Chili Peppers sound like cool names now,” Calek continued. “But in the beginning I bet everybody was saying ‘Who the hell would name your band Korn?’ It’s like naming your band ‘Peas’ or something stupid like that. But names become cool. Guns N’ Roses is one stupid name but it becomes cool after the band becomes popular.”

Mudder got its name during a brainstorming session of drummer Dave Egan. A 35″ Mudder is a large tire used on trucks for offroading. The name had a ring to it, and Egan decided to go with it.

“I guess in some cosmic way our music does relate to a big nasty tire running over everything and going through the mud and stuff,” Calek laughed. “But it really doesn’t have anything to do with our music.”

According to local trio Custom frontman Brian Witmer, a name is all about first impressions.

“I think a name plays a big part in whether someone wants to hear a band for the first time,” Witmer said. “If someone hears a name they like or don’t like, that could make or break that band’s chances of being heard.”

After seeing “Custom” written on the side of a truck, the members of the band felt the name left a significant first impression, as well as a good descriptor of the group’s sound.

“We were trying to explain our sound and we couldn’t, so we thought that ‘Custom’ best fit our band,” Witmer said.

“After we lost our lead singer, we threw around a bunch of names,” Witmer continued. “After a while though, we decided not to change our name because even if we lost our singer, we weren’t going to let it affect us. We were still a band. We just had to work around it.”

A name has even more significance to other bands. For jazz poetry/unplugged rhythm and blues ensemble The Bone People, their name holds deep meaning, drawing on New Zealand folklore.

The group is named after a book by Keri Hulme titled “The Bone People.” The book explores a myth surrounding Bone People who travel across cultures.

The Bone People are a group of people in a tribe who collect the bones of animals. After bringing entire skeletons of animals back, they reassemble the bones into the shape of the original animal.

“The way the myth works is The Bone People will sing over the bones once they’ve put them in place,” lead vocalist Deb Marquart said. “When they sing, the animal will rise up and have life again.”

The group was looking for something basic, primal and elemental. The Bone People fit perfectly.

“Linguists have this idea about language that there’s sort of this core of 200 words that every culture has,” Marquart said. “Words like blood, earth and bread. Bone is definitely one of those words.”

With a name like “The Bone People,” audiences often expect a group with six or seven members. Containing only three members, however, The Bone People have used its small size to the group’s advantage in more ways than one.

“I was always in bands where tons of different people decided the name of the band, and whenever you do that it’s always a disaster,” Marquart said. “I was in some horrible, horrible bands with horrible band names. So with this one, with only a few people in the band, we were able to come to an easier decision.”

Marquart takes the stance that a name should closely describe what a band’s image is, and make sense with what the band is doing musically. By doing that, a name becomes more than a name, but rather an official calling card for that band.

“Whenever you put a word on something, then you make it official,” Marquart said. “That’s sort of the power of naming. It’s like in the Garden of Eden, when Adam put a name on everything and in a way, that name is fixed with that object.

“That’s the same thing that happens to a band when you give it a name.The only problem is that music is fluid and changeable, so sometimes you might outgrow your name.”

The members of local rapcore fivesome 38th Parallel don’t look to be outgrowing their name any time soon — a name that holds significance of the spiritual kind reaches deeper than style.

The 38th Parallel is the latitudinal line that separates communist North Korea from democratic South Korea. For the members of the band, that line signifies much more than a separation of governments.

“We see the 38th Parallel as a line that declares freedom, the same as the freedom you can have in Christ,” bassist Jeff Barton said. “We have meaning in our lyrics so we thought that our name should have meaning, too.”

The band found the name in a history textbook and after studying it for a while, the name seemed appropriate. 38th Parallel didn’t arrive without a hitch, though. After changing the name of the band twice, Parallel needed a permanent name.

“Our first name was Thunderclap and then it was Octorok,” Barton said. “Octorok was a character from the Legend of Zelda. Will (Barton, former guitarist) wanted to name our band Harvester Harry and the Vision of Wishka, but we settled on 38th Parallel.”

Barton seemed right on when he declared band naming is different for everybody.

“A name matters in the sense that you can be unique,” Calek said. “Most of the time I think bands should try to coin something that sounds catchy to them. If you say a name and someone remembers it, it’s a good name. I think music speaks volumes over whatever you’re going to call yourself, no matter what it is.”

What’s in a name? Everything and nothing at all. Deep-rooted meaning and humorous analogies. As new groups continue to form daily, their names will play both a very small, and a very large part in their success.