Good soul singer names sound like real people, often with an initial, a "Little" or a "Jr.", like Little Wilbert Ellerbe or Reggie Upshaw Jr., while the groups had names polished to a shine. This soul singer name generator makes soul and Motown-style singer names, group names and album titles.
Eight good soul names
All eight came from the generator:
- Little Wilbert Ellerbe: "Little" was a common billing for young singers, as with Little Stevie Wonder.
- Reggie Upshaw Jr.: a real-sounding name with a "Jr.", for a singer from a musical family.
- Odell "Lover Boy" Pinkney: a nickname for a ballad singer, printed in quotation marks.
- Deborah Faye Stokes: a first name and a middle name together, Southern style.
- The Sapphire Hi-Fis: a jewel and a bit of hi-fi gloss, the way vocal groups were named.
- Jimmy Lyons & the Motor City Revue: a leader and a revue, after the touring shows of 1960s Detroit.
- The Waller Sisters: a family group with a shared surname.
- Love Letters from Detroit: an album title that tells you exactly what it sounds like.
How soul names itself
- Motown, founded by Berry Gordy in Detroit in 1959, gave its groups smart, plural names: the Supremes, the Temptations, the Miracles, the Marvelettes, the Four Tops.
- A singer and their group: Smokey Robinson and the Miracles, Martha and the Vandellas, Gladys Knight and the Pips.
- Real names for solo singers, often with an initial or a nickname. Soul came largely out of gospel, and many singers kept the names they'd sung under in church.
- Memphis soul, from labels like Stax, was rawer, and its names and titles were plainer to match.
Choose Singer for a soloist, with the gender filter, Group for a vocal group or a singer and their band, and Album for titles like Heartache Radio or Back Seat Serenade.
Using a soul name
- For a retro-soul act, a group name with "the" and a plural (The Uptown Gems) instantly sounds like 1965.
- For a modern singer, a real-sounding name usually works better than a nickname. Use the initial or the "Jr." if it's true.
- Check the name on streaming services: soul has a long back catalogue.
Soul has its roots in gospel and the blues: try the Gospel Choir and Blues name generators. For the modern side, the R&B Name Generator picks up where soul leaves off, and the Stage Name Generator covers any performer.
For more genres, see all the music genre name generators.