First step, pick a kid friendly name, like The Wiggles. Do not pick a name that stands for terrorizing children.

We took Pooh Bear and two ninjas to a costume ball at a local mall yesterday. It was a one hour concert by a kids' band followed by a costume contest. The band was pretty good. They were high energy and got the kids, especially the little ones, dancing and participating in the music. Something bothered me about the band name though.

They were called "The Bugaboos". At first hearing it this sounds like a cute name. It's got "bug" in there and bugs are pretty popular with kids. They don't understand that "bug" also means "cockroach", "fire ant" and "black widow". For kids, "bug" means "daddy longlegs", "lady bug" and "cricket". But "bugaboo" sat wrong with me. I've got a fairly decent vocabulary but I couldn't think of specifically why it bothered me but it certainly did.

When we got home (none of our munchkins won the contest - it was rigged) I looked up "bugaboo" at Miriam Webster and found the definition:

1 : an imaginary object of fear 2 : BUGBEAR 2; also : something that causes fear or distress out of proportion to its importance

Yup, they named their band after the boogeyman. I seriously doubt that they intended to make their band name synonymous with childhood horror but that's where they ended up.

Moral of the story: When you pick a name for your band, go ahead and verify that it doesn't mean the exact opposite of what you are going for. When in doubt, use the Band Name Generator. Then again, Billy Manlove and the Amazing Hamster System might not be the best name for a kids' band either. Unless you're a priest.