"A rose by any other name would still smell as sweet" wrote William Shakespeare. Still, names are of supreme importance four centuries later to that unique and recent musical invention -- the rock 'n' roll band.

There are many bizarre names in the annals of its brief history.

What follows are the true stories behind the naming of many popular bands, old and new, as revealed to this writer over many years of interviewing artists.

Names inspired by real people ...

* THE BEATLES: Sir Paul McCartney confirmed that he and his mates were huge fans of the American rockers, Buddy Holly & The Crickets, so in searching for a new name to replace their old one, The Quarrymen, they opted for a variation of their idols' name.

A beetle was akin to a cricket, after all. Being as their sound was tagged as "Mersey Beat," they altered the spelling to signify their inclusion in that regional scene and came to be called, The Silver Beatles, which soon was shortened to, simply, The Beatles.

* THE EAGLES: Eagles bassist Timothy B. Schmidt said members chose The Eagles because they liked the American sound it conveyed and the way it was aligned with The Byrds, a popular 1960s folk-rock band who had a great influence on all the members.

* JETHRO TULL: Despite the frustration of having people think he is named Jethro Tull, the band's flute-playing frontman, Ian Anderson, still loves the name of his band. "There was a real Jethro Tull once, but I don't think he played music," Anderson explained. "I think he was too busy working the land.

"Jethro Tull was an 18th century British agronomist (farmer) who invented a special drill for sowing seeds." Anderson, himself a farmer of sorts and a history buff, thought the name fit well, since the band's early music borrowed a lot from traditional Celtic folk, including songs that dated back to the real Jethro Tull's era.

* PINK FLOYD: Though they made their reputation by pioneering psychedelic rock in their native England, like most U.K. bands of the 1960s, Pink Floyd began their career as a blues group. Their famous moniker came about by combining the names of two obscure Georgia bluesmen that some of the members listened to -- Pink Anderson and Floyd Council.

* TESLA: Late '80s hard rockers, Tesla members borrowed their name from Nikola Tesla, the Serbian electrical engineer and inventor overshadowed in the scheme of things and in history books by Thomas Edison, because they, too, felt like an underdog.

"Rock ‘n' roll is ALL about electricity, and we looked at Nikola as a kindred spirit," explained guitarist Tommy Skeoch. "It seemed like a way to give him proper recognition for his work, while giving us a pretty cool name at the same time."

* SISTER HAZEL: Named after a local nun who was a community icon in their native Gainesville, Fla., region. Like the real-life Sister Hazel, the group has come to champion many charitable causes of their own, including many local ones headed up by the nun herself.

* LYNYRD SKYNYRD: In the Florida swamplands of the 1960s, precocious future members of this band were berated by high school gym instructor, Leonard Skinner.

"He was like a drill sergeant. He was always yelling," keyboardist Billy Powell said. "We thought it'd be funny to name the band after him, but we spelled it differently." That decision resulted in a little bit of immortality for the crusty coach who made life tough on the band's original members.

* CREEDENCE CLEARWATER REVIVAL: Originally called The Golliwogs when they first started cutting records in 1964, they became Creedence Clearwater Revival in 1967. According to founding bassist Stu Cook, "Creedence" came from an old friend's name, "Clearwater" from a beer commercial and "Revival" was added as a statement of intent.

Named for places and things ...

* GRAND FUNK RAILROAD: "The Grand Trunk Railroad was big in Michigan and you would see signs all over the place," founding guitarist/vocalist Mark Farner said.

"Because there was a lot of blues and funk influence in our sound, we changed our name from The Pack to Grand Funk Railroad."

* REO SPEEDWAGON: The name came about after keyboardist Neil Doughty was thumbing through a book and saw a photo of a 1930s fire engine made by Oldsmobile.

"We thought it was a good name, because we thought we were 'hot' stuff," said former guitarist Gary Richrath. "It was a very cool-looking truck." R.E.O. were the initials of Ransom Elliot Olds, the founder of the Oldsmobile car company.

* CHEVELLE: The Loeffler brothers of the modern-rock act, Chevelle, named themselves after the popular '60s muscle car their gear-head father worked on in their garage.

"That was THE car of its time, and it was our way of paying tribute to our dad in a way we knew he'd like," said Sam Loeffler of the Gurnee, Ill., group.

"Our dad not only passed on his love of music to us, but also his love of street rods, muscle cars and racing. The name fits our music, and it conveys a cool image as well."

* WHITESNAKE: Lead singer David Coverdale told that his hit-making hair metal band's name was inspired by a white ball python snake he once owned.

Names inspired (believe it or not) by arts and literature ...

* THE ROLLING STONES: Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, both huge fans of American blues, took their name in homage to two of their biggest influences, Howlin' Wolf and Muddy Waters. Wolf wrote the song, "Rolling Stone," which was most famously recorded by Muddy Waters for Chicago's Chess Records.

* TOAD THE WET SPROCKET: Vocalist Glen Phillips confirmed that his Santa Barbara, Calif., group's name was adopted in 1986 in tribute to a Monty Python sketch about rock bands. It the sketch, Python comedian Eric Idle cited it as being a name too silly to be chosen by a real band. Obviously not the case.

* DURAN DURAN: British pop icons Duran Duran took their name from the cult classic Roger Vadim film, "Barbarella." Duran Duran was the name of the villain in the campy film who gave grief to the sexy space-age vamp played by then-rising starlet, Jane Fonda.

"There really wasn't a lot of thought put into it," Nick Rhoades said. "It was catchy and was a nod to a big piece of pop culture that we all liked."

* BLACK SABBATH: A one time blues band that helped pioneer both heavy metal and goth rock by tuning down and turning up. They needed a dark name to go with their dark and foreboding sound. Bassist Geezer Butler said: "The name comes from an old black and white horror film starring Boris Karloff."

* COUNTING CROWS: This popular '90s band's name comes from an old English nursery rhyme that had to do with predicting the future from the numbers of birds seen. Originally the rhyme was about magpies, but over the years, the more common crow replaced them in the story. Singer Adam Duritz reportedly loved the rhyme as a child and named his band in homage to it.

* THE VELVET UNDERGROUND: New York's '60s experimental band that was the launching pad for Lou Reed and strongly associated with pop culture art icon, Andy Warhol, took their name from a paperback book they found outside a club on the street. The book was about sex in America.

* STEPPENWOLF: This Canadian power blues group whose members dabbled in psychedelic music, changed their name from The Sparrow to Steppenwolf, the title of a classic novel by Herman Hesse.

"It was a book I was totally unfamiliar with at the time, but a young man who lived next door to where the band rehearsed had read it. When we needed to put a band name on the demo (tape) that was going out to labels, he suggested Steppenwolf," Kay said.

"It sounded strong and looked good in print. It's been a very good name."

* STEELY DAN: The jazzy, soft rock duo of Donald Fagen and Walter Becker took this name from a William Burrough's book titled, "Naked Lunch," in which the author nicknames a giant steam-powered sex toy "Steely Dan."

* THE AMBOY DUKES: Teenage guitar threat Ted Nugent's first band took its name from the title of a 1940s paperback book about street gangs by author Irving Shulman.

* THE DOORS: While a teen, aspiring poet Jim Morrison read poet William Blake who wrote, "if the doors of perception are cleansed, everything would appear to man as it truly is, infinite."

That line affected Morrison a second time when author Aldous Huxley borrowed the line from Blake's poem for his title, "The Doors of Perception." "Jim was set on that name when he and Ray Manzarek decided to put together the band," Doors guitarist Robbie Krieger said.

* HEAVEN 17: This 1980s pop group favored the heavy use of synthesizers and drum machines, much like their counterparts, The Human League. Because they embraced a futuristic sound, it's not surprising they took their name from a fictional pop group mentioned in Anthony Burgess' novel, "A Clockwork Orange." Burgess wrote the line, "... where The Heaven Seventeen are at number 4 on the charts with 'Inside.' "