People are just working out what Foo Fighters band name really means

Although you might already have a list of baby names in your notes ready to go for if, and when, you become a parent at some point, coming up with a title for a music group can be a bit trickier.

Yes, your bundle of joy will have to wade through the rest of eternity with the moniker you decide on, but bands have to keep in mind that their name is part of their entire legacy that will long outlive them.

That's on top of the fact they're hoping to see it in big lights and printed on merch, posters as well as hopefully vintage-looking t-shirts one day - so it's got to be a good one.

So spare a thought for poor Dave Grohl, who has seemingly been left wishing he spent a bit more time stewing over what to call his infamous ensemble, Foo Fighters, for this exact reason.

Despite the fact we've never been quite clear on what the hell a foo is and why the band were fighting it, we all just sort of embraced it - but in hindsight, the musician reckons it is 'the stupidest f**king band name in the world'.

He came up with it after Nirvana disbanded in 1994 following the death of frontman Kurt Cobain, so you can imagine the pressure was on to come up with a name which rivalled that.

But unfortunately for Grohl, he didn't have anyone around to bounce ideas off at the time, as he actually started Foo Fighters as a one-man-project that same year in Seattle.

The rocker, 55, previously told how he was inundated with offers to work with various different artists who wanted him to join their music groups - with reports claiming Pearl Jam and Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers were the frontrunners.

But he wasn't keen on the idea of damning himself to sit behind a drum kit for the rest of his career.

Dave Grohl initially set up the Foo Fighters as a one-man-band. (Paul Morigi/Getty Images)

In a previous interview, Grohl said: "I was supposed to just join another band and be a drummer the rest of my life.

"I thought that I would rather do what no one expected me to do."

So, with a pocketful of dreams and a s**t ton of emotions he needed to get off of his chest, he marched into the Robert Lang Studios in Washington in October 1994 and ended up creating an album's worth of songs in just five days.

Grohl played every instrument himself and sang every vocal on the tracks, before later handing out cassette copies to his pals to get some feedback - but he wasn't quite ready for the world to hear them just yet.

He had intended to stay anonymous and decided to release his music in a limited-run under the name Foo Fighters - as he hoped that because it was plural, people would think it was made by several people.

But where on earth did the music star actually get the name from?

The rocker had an unusual source of inspiration for the band's name. (Gina Wetzler/Redferns)

Well, interestingly, Grohl was actually inspired by Allied aircraft pilots who used the term during World War II to describe unidentified flying objects they spotted in the skies which they presumed were secret weapons deployed by enemy forces.

According to reports, the US 415th Night Fighter Squadron thought up the phrase in November 1944.

It is believed that the Bristol Beaufighter crew - made up of pilot Edward Schlueter, radar observer Donald J. Meiers, and intelligence officer Fred Ringwald - were flying along the Rhine north of Strasbourg when they noticed some 'UFOs'.

Apparently, they described seeing 'eight to 10 bright orange lights off the left wing…flying through the air at high speed' and Meiers decided to invent a moniker for them.

The radar observer is said to have used a 'nonsense word' used by characters in the Smokey Stover American firefighter cartoon, foo fighters, to refer to the UFOs.

Grohl later said of the band name: "Had I actually considered this to be a career, I probably would have called it something else, because it's the stupidest f**king band name in the world."