TRUTH OR CONSEQUENCES, N.M. — Local psychedelic rock band P_Floyd8732486 revealed that they arrived at their unusual name after discovering “Pink Floyd” was already in use by a British group, uncreative sources confirmed.
“This wasn’t even our second or even third choice, but P_Floyd8732482, P_Floyd8732489, and Fleetwood Mac were also already taken,” songwriter George Rivers explained. “You won’t believe this, but some other band in England had the name ‘Pink Floyd’ a long time ago. We’d never heard of them. I doubt anyone has. And get this: They also had pinkfloyd.com on lock. They really beat us to the punch. So we did it like a computer, you know: We generated a string of numbers, messed with the name, it’s cool now. Though it turns out my nephew Preston Floyd has the same gamertag. We’re so cooked.”
Pink Floyd drummer and sole constant member Nick Mason expressed befuddlement at how P_Floyd8732486 chose their moniker.
“Syd [Barrett, Pink Floyd co-founder] came up with the name, and I thought he was out of his mind,” Mason recalled. “‘Pink Floyd,’ no one would ever think that was a great title for a group. I initially wanted to call us ‘Pink-Floyd42069’ actually. Now these guys had the same bloody idea as me? Take our name and remove everything interesting and cool about it? Good fucking luck getting a gig, gents. People are going to think you’re a password for a DoorDash account or, worse yet, a Pink Floyd cover band.”
Marla Davenport, founder and president of Band Name Index, believes that a situation like P_Floyd8732486’s is a real risk in 2025.
“We’ve all heard someone say ‘all the good ideas are taken!’ Sadly, this is entirely accurate,” said Davenport. “When I first logged ‘!!!’ into our index, I realized we were at a point of no return. I mean, we’ve already seen several bands use ‘!!!!’ or even ‘!!!_34082.” At least the chances of another band taking P_Floyd8732486’s name are around the same as those guys pulling more than 10 people at their gigs. And if they ever forget their band name they could always just reset it to something else.”
At press time, Davenport revealed that, while …And You Will Know Us By the Trail of Dead and King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard are “safe for now,” it could be any day that a new band will look for these names and “get screwed.”