Something I noticed is it seems there is an unusually high amount of bands with explicitly feminine names (the root word has the feminine gender or refers to a female entity), and relatively few with explicitly masculine names. This is at least true for older metal bands, see this list. Now, it's certainly a bit skewed for that era because of glam metal, and some of the instances are probably unintentional (I highly doubt Dimebag or whoever specifically picked the feminine "Pantera" over the masculine "Leopardo", but considering they started out as a glam band before they became a hypermasculine groove band, they might have), but there are plenty of non-glam bands which specifically took upon a girl's name like Thin Lizzy. I also think a small contributor to this is all girl bands may point out their gender with their band name, while all male bands have no reason to do as such as they are the default, but again, there a plenty of all male bands with feminine names.

Examples of notable bands with feminine names:
Iron Maiden (technically refers to the torture device, but from the song I think it's a pun)
Metallica (if it's a romanized word ending with "a", it's feminine, "o" is masculine, though for actual romantic words it's more complicated)
Pantera
Thin Lizzy
Queensryche
Twisted Sister
Cinderella
Alice Cooper (his birthname is "Vincent Damon Furnier", so it counts)
Vixen
Alice in Chains
Apocalyptica
Black Veil Brides
Jane's Addiction
Lacuna Coil (I think, not exactly sure what lacuna/Lacuna is being used here)
Marilyn Manson
Queens of the Stone Age
Bathory
My Dying Bride
Cult of Luna
Epica
Tiamat
Girlschool
Isis
Baroness
Sarah Jezebel Deva*
Tarja*
Xandria

Compared with:
Judas Priest (actually a minced oath, which would be generless, but Halford said something about Judas symobilzing evil and priest good, which are both subjects of the band, so male for Judas)
Manowar
St. Vitus
Sir Lord Baltimore
Sammy Hagar*
Ozzy Osbourne*
Breaking Benjamin*
HIM (HIS Infernal Majesty)
Papa Roach
Rob Zombie*
King Diamond
Boris
Oceano
Lamb of God (one of Jesus's titles, also God is masculine)
Strapping Young Lad
Jesu (it means Jesus)
Yngwie Malmsteen*
King's X
Melvins
Emperor

*Doesn't really count as it's explicitly based on the lead singers first name (or a nickname in the case of Ozzy), if not being their full name


I think part of the trend for all-male metal bands to give them feminine names is because a major theme in heavy metal is embodying the other, and for the target audience of most metal bands, female is an aspect of the other. Metal is dark, angry, rebellious, and...feminine. Interestingly enough, the modes and chord progressions the metal are usually based were considered feminine by classical musicians, and thus shunned. Nothing is more counter-cultural than a man taking on a feminine name, and glam bands took that a step further by becoming more feminine in appearance than just having rebellious long hair. Also, metal is life, metal is sex, and for the boys watching that is women, and giving the band a feminine name acts a tribute to women. For many, heavy metal is their "rocka rolla woman". Anyway that's my theory, if anyone has other explanations feel free to give it. Also if you know any bands with interesting generated names, feel free to post them.

You definitely care a lot about metal :p

Sarah jebel deva - Sarah Jane Ferridge
Tarja Turunen - Tarja Soile Susanna Cabuli , as in this case Turunen was her maiden name
Samuel Roy "Sammy" Hagar
John Michael "Ozzy" Osbourne

Emperor cant be female, IMO its empress
Thin Lizzy


and what we suppose discuss here?

Where the hell did you go to school that taught you the Emperor title was feminine? Ever heard of "Empress?"

I meant to put Emperor in the masculine category, just typed it into the wrong spot, my bad. Gonna fix that now.

Thanks for pointing out Ozzy isn't based on his first name, but it's still a masculine name based on his own name, so I'll update the description.

Girlschool is an all female band.

Written by Totenlieder on 05.10.2014 at 07:28

Girlschool is an all female band.

So is Vixen, in that list I was including all bands with feminine names that I could think of which I considered "notable", and didn't exclude the all-girl ones.

Manowar is a type of ship and ships are of the feminine gender so Manowar should be in the feminine list.

Alice in Chains is an interesting one. For example 'Steve in Chains' doesn't have quite the same ring to it.

Written by Guest on 05.10.2014 at 03:35

Where the hell did you go to school that taught you the Emperor title was feminine? Ever heard of "Empress?"

that's what I told in post above
BTW dude forot Alice Cooper and seems he pick up bands from mainstream list LOL

It's not as if everything that ends in an A (even Latin-derived) is feminine (in meaning or even grammatically). Catatonia happens to be the word to describe a certain state (derived from catatonus/-um/a), whereas catatonius doesn't mean the same thing (and isn't really a word as such). Same goes for anathema, and in fact (at least according to my dictionary) the word is neuter, not feminine. The same, to a lesser extent, goes for something like Cult of Luna: the mythological name/figure of the moon happens to be feminine/female, but to me the name seems primarily to evoke the moon qua moon.

You'd need to take a random selection of, say, 300 metal band names to see if the statistics are interesting, and then maybe compare it to the same number of randomly selected names from other genres, I think. I don't know what this implies, anyhow.

Written by Marcel Hubregtse on 05.10.2014 at 13:46

Manowar is a type of ship and ships are of the feminine gender so Manowar should be in the feminine list.

I'm sure if the idiots in Manowar heard you say that they'd be full of rage.

Written by Marcel Hubregtse on 05.10.2014 at 13:46

Manowar is a type of ship and ships are of the feminine gender so Manowar should be in the feminine list.

Technically its both

Friendly ships are 'she'. Enemy ships are 'he'.

Quote:

Quote:
Bathory is a family name, not a given name. See here for more: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B%C3%A1thory_family.

Friendly ships are 'she'. Enemy ships are 'he'.

I thought all ships were refered to as 'she'?

Regarding Manowar, I'm pretty sure their name is a pun (Man of War), which an emphasis on "man", so it's male. Ships aren't gendered in English, but it's true they are usually referred to as female when given a gender. Still funny to think about Manowar having a feminine band name.

Written by deadone on 06.10.2014 at 06:25

Ironically Cycle Sluts From Hell doesn't sound very feminine:

All I'm caring about is if the word is objectively feminine or not, no subjective ratings on whether something is feminine or masculine in sound or whatnot is irrelevant. That is an objectively female name, as here slut is feminine gendered. The name Cycle Sluts From Hell matches the music pretty well.

Written by Bad English on 05.10.2014 at 16:13

Written by Guest on 05.10.2014 at 03:35

Where the hell did you go to school that taught you the Emperor title was feminine? Ever heard of "Empress?"

that's what I told in post above
BTW dude forot Alice Cooper and seems he pick up bands from mainstream list LOL

Of course I'm gonna pick mainstream bands, I don't have time to list every obscure band. I specifically said I was going with more notable bands. My methodology was I went through huge lists of metal bands, looked at the bands I considered where notable enough to include, then listed those bands which had names I consider gendered. I noticed similar gendered trends in the bands I didn't consider notable enough. And no, I didn't forget Alice Cooper, what the hell are you even talking about.

Written by Azarath on 05.10.2014 at 14:37

Alice in Chains is an interesting one. For example 'Steve in Chains' doesn't have quite the same ring to it.

It's a reference to bondage, so it's sexual in nature. Again, I think lot of the band names are sexual allusions, turning the band into a quasi-sexual entity by giving them a sexualized feminine name. I'm sure feminists could talk about it for hours.

Written by IronAngel on 05.10.2014 at 21:03

It's not as if everything that ends in an A (even Latin-derived) is feminine (in meaning or even grammatically). Catatonia happens to be the word to describe a certain state (derived from catatonus/-um/a), whereas catatonius doesn't mean the same thing (and isn't really a word as such). Same goes for anathema, and in fact (at least according to my dictionary) the word is neuter, not feminine. The same, to a lesser extent, goes for something like Cult of Luna: the mythological name/figure of the moon happens to be feminine/female, but to me the name seems primarily to evoke the moon qua moon.

You'd need to take a random selection of, say, 300 metal band names to see if the statistics are interesting, and then maybe compare it to the same number of randomly selected names from other genres, I think. I don't know what this implies, anyhow.

Fine, I'll remove Katatonia and Anathema, but Cult of Luna is staying, because by choosing "Luna" over the "the Moon" or whatnot, they are intentionally invoking the image of moon goddess rather than just the moon as a gender neutral entity. I don't think it's coincidence (and as I said, coincidences are staying in).

Sounds like a good methodology, much more objective then the one I used, but I for one don't have time to do that right now.

Written by deadone on 06.10.2014 at 06:32

I've never heard a ship referred to as a "he." It's always a "she" even when referring to enemy combatants.

Also most ships are not military. Any old dirty tanker, container ship or car ferry whatever is a "she".

Only ships I've never heard referred to as "she" are submarines and smaller vessels.

I was referring to what I've read about the Pacific War, where American sailors would call Japanese ships 'he'.

I mean whit Alice its more female name ;I not male

Written by Bad English on 07.10.2014 at 15:29

I mean whit Alice its more female name ;I not male

Which is why I put it in the female category.

Oh, I found Rosetta named themselves as such specifically because the name sounds feminine, but that isn't too unusual as like many post-metal bands, their sound is rather feminine and the screamed vocals are the only overtly masculine element.