# Where did the Grateful Dead get their name? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\ **Created:** [August 27, 2013, 2:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-did-the-grateful-dead-get-their-name/667302 "2013-08-27T14:44:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2013, 2:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-did-the-grateful-dead-get-their-name/667302/1 "2013-08-27T14:44:13Z")
> **[Where did the Grateful Dead get their name?](https://www.straightdope.com/21342141/where-did-the-grateful-dead-get-their-name)** I assumed there must’ve been a thread about this column, but couldn’t find it. Wiki has a short page on the “grateful dead” trope, though: [Grateful dead (folklore) - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grateful_dead_(folklore)) ---
**Author:** ![Prof.Pepperwinkle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/prof.pepperwinkle/32/13627_2.png) [@Prof.Pepperwinkle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Prof.Pepperwinkle)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2013, 2:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-did-the-grateful-dead-get-their-name/667302/2 "2013-08-27T14:47:18Z")
From Wikipedia’s page on “[List of band name etymologies](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_band_name_etymologies)”: Grateful Dead — The name Grateful Dead was chosen from a dictionary. According to Phil Lesh, in his biography (pp. 62), “…Jer[ry Garcia] picked up an old Britannica World Language Dictionary…[and]…In that silvery elf-voice he said to me, ‘Hey, man, how about the Grateful Dead?’” The definition there was “the soul of a dead person, or his angel, showing gratitude to someone who, as an act of charity, arranged their burial.” According to Alan Trist, director of the Grateful Dead’s music publisher company Ice Nine, Garcia found the name in the Funk & Wagnalls Folklore Dictionary, when his finger landed on that phrase while playing a game of “dictionary”.[70] In the Garcia biography, Captain Trips, author Sandy Troy states that the band was smoking the psychedelic DMT at the time. The term “grateful dead” appears in folktales of a variety of cultures. ---
**Author:** ![johnpost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f17d59/32.png) [@johnpost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/johnpost)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2013, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-did-the-grateful-dead-get-their-name/667302/3 "2013-08-27T16:17:14Z")
previously On Grateful Dead folklore > **[On Grateful Dead folklore](https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=436092)** > > In recent mainpage reproduction of a classic SD column, Cecil answers the question of where The Grateful Dead got their name. In it, he discovers and expounds upon the folklore from which their name was inadvertently derived, citing a typical tale... ---
**Author:** ![John\_W.Kennedy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_w.kennedy/32/1031_2.png) [@John\_W.Kennedy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_W.Kennedy)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2013, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-did-the-grateful-dead-get-their-name/667302/4 "2013-08-27T18:05:43Z")
I have no reason to doubt this story—I know it makes sense—but I could swear that, mumbly-mumble years ago, I saw the band name explained as being somehow an allusion to a passage in the Egyptian Book of the Dead. ---
**Author:** ![Rhythmdvl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/85f322/32.png) [@Rhythmdvl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhythmdvl)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2013, 10:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-did-the-grateful-dead-get-their-name/667302/5 "2013-08-28T10:16:43Z")
Cecil made a Sugar Mag reference. My day has been made!