How the Rolling Stones Got Their Name (And the Names They Rejected)

Brian Jones was on the phone with a journalist from Jazz News in early 1962, trying to book a gig. The reporter needed a band name for the listing. Jones, supposedly a Muddy Waters obsessive, glanced at a record sleeve on the floor — the bluesman’s “Rollin’ Stone” — and said something like “The Rollin’ Stones.” The journalist misheard or misprinted it as “Rolling Stones,” and it stuck.

Before that, the band cycled through some real duds. They tried “The Blue Boys” back when Jones and future bassist Dick Taylor played skiffle. Around the time they started jamming with Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, they went by “The Rollin’ Stones” for a while (deliberate missing ‘g’ to sound more bluesy). Other candidates included “The Muddy Waters Blues Band,” “The Boy Friends of Brian Jones,” and just “The Pagans.” Luckily, the record sleeve on the floor won.