Good goth band names are romantic and a little morbid, with a Victorian streak: think Sisters of Mercy or Siouxsie and the Banshees. This goth band name generator makes band names, stage names and album titles for gothic rock, darkwave and post-punk, from Isadora and the Ravens to Cold Station.
Eight good goth band names
All eight came from the generator:
- Isadora and the Ravens: a Victorian first name and a dark gang, the classic goth shape.
- Ligeia and the Lanterns: Ligeia is the title of an Edgar Allan Poe story.
- Fields of Black Lace: a landscape made of mourning clothes.
- Cold Station: the bleak, two-word style of post-punk.
- Schattenspiel: German for "shadow play", for the darkwave end.
- Les Heures Grises: French for "the grey hours".
- Vivienne Valois: a stage name that sounds like a portrait in a dark gallery.
- A Rose in the Glasshouse: an album title that's pretty and sad at once.
How goth names itself
Gothic rock grew out of post-punk around 1979, the year Bauhaus released "Bela Lugosi's Dead". Siouxsie and the Banshees, The Cure and the Sisters of Mercy, who took their name from a Leonard Cohen song, shaped the sound, and the Batcave club in London, opened in 1982, gave the scene a home. In Germany, darkwave grew into a scene of its own, with the Wave-Gotik-Treffen festival in Leipzig.
Goth names lean on literature and old Europe:
- A heroine and her gang: Sylvia and the Somnambulists, Evangeline and the Widows.
- Cold places and machines for post-punk: Static Arcade, Twin Hotel.
- German and French for darkwave: Schattenspiel, Les Heures Grises.
Choose Stage name for names like Felix Ravenscroft or single names like Seraphine, and Album title for records like Velvet Ceremonies.
Using a goth name
- Romance, not gore. Goth is about longing, candles and old houses. Leave the blood to death metal.
- Foreign words should mean something. Check the German or French says what you think it says.
- Search before you commit. Look the name up on Spotify, Bandcamp and YouTube, and check the social handles are free. Two acts with one name confuse fans and streaming services alike.
For something heavier, try the Metal Band Name Generator; for something with no drums at all, the Dark Ambient Name Generator. The Band Name Generator and Album Name Generator cover everything else.
For more genres, see all the music genre name generators.