Check Out How Your Favorite Musicians Stumbled Into Choosing Their Now-Iconic Names

Rivers Cuomo Has Asthma, Starts Weezer

Photo Credit: Scott Dudelson/WireImage

Weezer’s name came out swinging from the trenches of an elementary school playground. It was one of those endearing insults children so carelessly throw around before they learn that you shouldn’t make fun of people (at least to their faces!).

Growing up, singer Rivers Cuomo suffered from asthma, and as a result, his friends (and likely a few playground bullies) would call him “Weezer.” It was a nickname he was unable to shake and the perfect name for a band so heavily rooted in nerd culture and college radio rock. Weezer proves that a bully’s insult could easily transform into a platinum-selling artist with a decades-long career as long as you have the right spin.