Rock bands get their name from all kinds of places—even books. (By the way, “Uncle John” is still available, should any of you aspiring musicians need a moniker.)

Veruca Salt

This ‘90s alternative rock band (best known for “Seether”) is named after the snotty, spoiled girl who wins one of the Golden Tickets to visit Willy Wonka’s factory in Roald Dahl’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

Manhattan Transfer

The ‘70s vocal group had a huge hit with “The Boy From New York City.” They’re thoroughly New York, down to their name—Manhattan Transfer is a 1925 novel by American writer John Dos Passos.

My Chemical Romance

Bass player Mikey Way was actually working at a bookstore when he picked up Ecstasy: Three Tales of Chemical Romance, a book by Trainspotting author Irvine Welsh. His brother and bandmate Gerard Way suggested adding the “my” to the “chemical romance.”

Lisa Loeb and Nine Stories

The singer-songwriter named her backing band after a 1953 J.D. Salinger collection.

The Doors

English poet William Blake wrote the lines, “If the doors of perception were cleansed every thing would appear to man as it is, Infinite.” That inspired the title of Aldous Huxley’s The Doors of Perception, which in turn inspired the name of Jim Morrison’s psychedelic band.

Steppenwolf

The band had originally called itself the Sparrow, but changed it in 1968 on the suggestion of their producer Gabriel Mekler, who had just finished reading Herman Hesse’s Steppenwolf.

Marillion

Initially Silmarillion, after Lord of the Rings author J.R.R. Tolkein’s The Silmarillion, the progressive rock band shortened it because it feared getting sued by Tolkein’s estate for copyright infringement.

Silverchair

The Australian band (“Tomorrow”) is named for The Silver Chair, one of the books in C.S. Lewis’s The Chronicles of Narnia.

Sixpence None the Richer

This Christian rock band had a huge pop hit in 1999 with “Kiss Me.” They also got their name from C.S. Lewis. It’s a paraphrase of a passage from Mere Christianity.