How did Weezer get their name?

Posted On September 25, 2024September 25, 2024

Some band names are self-explanatory. Fleetwood Mac, for example, combines the surnames of founding members Mick Fleetwood Mac and John McVie. The Beatles is a straightforward music pun. And The Band, well, they were a band. Others are a little more difficult to decipher. Take Smashing Pumpkins, for example, whose name stemmed from a long-standing joke made by Billy Corgan. Or Weezer, who hurriedly picked their name after booking a show. 

Weezer is now one of the most well-known band names in music history, but it wasn’t always that way. Before the band debuted with their now-iconic self-titled blue album, before they earned a huge cult following and Rivers Cuomo became one of the most famous frontmen in the alternative scene, they were a group of kids in California writing songs about after parties and trying to land their first show.

Weezer had secured all of their band members by February 1992. Cuomo took up the microphone and guitar while Jason Cropper joined him on the latter. Matt Sharp played the bass guitar, and Patrick Wilson took up his place behind the drumkit. The initial lineup had been set in place, but they were yet to decide on a name for their work. 

By the time they booked a support slot in March of 1992, the band still hadn’t decided what to name themselves. They had been asked to play ahead of Dogstar, the grunge band led by actor Keanu Reeves, and they needed to come up with a name to give to the booking agent, fast. They landed on Weezer, a name they have retained ever since (with brief outings as Goat Punishment), but where did the name stem from?

What does the name Weezer mean?

The name Weezer stemmed primarily from the band’s lead singer, Cuomo. It was a nickname that his father had called him during childhood. “That’s what my dad called me when I was very young,” the Weezer frontman explained during a conversation with Conan O’Brien, before explaining the origin of the nickname. 

When Cuomo asked his father about the origin of the name, he told him he had borrowed it from the character of the same name in the comedy television series Our Gang, also referred to as The Little Rascals. Bobby Hutchins starred in the series as a character called Wheezer in the late 1920s. Cuomo’s father thought that Wheezer was the “cool one,” which is why he gave his son the nickname.

Under pressure to accept their support slot with Dogstar, Cuomo plucked the nickname from his childhood, removed a letter, and unknowingly created one of the most iconic band names in guitar music. In the years that followed, band members would come and go — Scott Shriner would take up the bass, and Brian Bell would provide keys and additional vocals — but Weezer remained a constant.

Three decades later, the name Weezer entirely belongs to the band. It immediately evokes images of the iconic covers for Weezer albums and the sounds of ‘Island in the Sun’. Short, playful and memorable, it was the perfect name for their nerdy take on guitar music. And we have Dogstar and Cuomo’s dad to thank for it.

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