I saw a flyer for The Dead Milkmen that made me think about it. Bare Naked Ladies comes to mind, not sure how big they got. The Bangles changed their name from The Bangs to be more acceptable.
…And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead comes to mind.
For bands that had top 40 hits in the U.S., I’d include Butthole Surfers, The Babys, and Kajagoogoo.
I don’t know how big they got for their music, but they’re pretty famous. Pussy Riot.
Steely Dan
Back during the heights of the swing music revival, I was dragged along to a middle school band performance so my wife could see her young cousin perform. They were playing standard band-ified versions of popular songs, you know the like. Had I been drinking coffee, I would have spit it out when the director announced that the next song was by the Cherry Poppin’ Daddies.
Pink Floyd? Blue Oyster Cult?
Doobie Brothers?
Add to that: Chumbawumba
I would argue there are more strange band names than “normal” or “regular” ones. How about The The?
The Cowboy Junkies? Die Einstürzenden Neubauten? The Dead Kennedys?
The evidence seems to support you.
Also, Die Abstürzenden Brieftauben (I think the name was a homage).
10,000 Maniacs
Toad the Wet Sprocket
30 Odd Foot of Grunts
Them
Ned’s Atomic Dustbin
Oingo Boingo
The Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band
Death Cab for Cutie (who took their name from a Bonzo Dog song)
Godspeed You! Black Emperor
Die Fabulösen Thekenschlampen (The Fabulous Bar Sluts)
Talking Heads
The Sex Pistols
Electric Prunes
Geeze, people. Just because YOU’VE heard of them and they are your secret favorite, many of these bands are not under the heading of “made it big”.
Moby Grape.
Toad the Wet Sprocket ( from a Monty Python sketch that was meant to be a joke)
Death Cab for Cutie ( from a song by the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band, another candidate)
I remember, back in the late '80s, reading an interview with Micky Dolenz of The Monkees in Playboy. He was asked about newer bands that he liked, and his comment about Butthole Surfers was, “great music, shame about the name.” 