Kpop Groups: Meaning behind their Names
Kpop Groups bring out uniqueness and charm through their names, though some may sound new or even weird like Momoland or Weki Meki, some may even come up from acronyms like BTS, NCT, AOA or scientific inspired like Cross Gene and f(x).
Let us look into the following bands and check out the meaning behind their names.
1NB — 1 New Best
1PS — 1 Piece Score
1TYM — 1 Time for Your Mind
15& — 15 was their age of debut while the “&” means that they can achieve success in the future.
24K — The group consists of 2 dancing machines and 4 main vocalists.
2AM — Is when people get emotional as they reflect alone upon the things that happened during the day. The group’s aim is to feature songs which express such emotional depth and sensitivity.
2Eyes — The idea of the members; communicating with people through their eyes.
2NE1 — To any one; New Generation of the 21st Century.
2PM — 2pm is the most active and pumped time of the day. The group’s aim is to make such energetic and passionate music.
2YOON (4MINUTE subunit) — The group is composed of Gayoon and Jiyoon.
4L — 4 Ladies
4MINUTE — Means that the girls will captivate the fans with their charms within 4 minutes. It also signifies ‘for minute,’ that they will always try their best for every minute.
æspa — Their name comes from combining ‘æ’ derived from ‘Avatar X Experience’ & ‘aspect’. The meaning behind the name is various innovative activities to come with the theme of ‘Experiencing a new world via the encounter of the ‘avatar’, your other self’.
After School — Signifies the sense of freedom that students feel ‘after school’ and how they show off their talents and have a fun time while enjoying such freedom.
Akdong Musician — Literally meaning ‘mischievous child musician’.
ANS — Angel N Soul
AOA — Ace of Angels
Apink — Portmanteau of A (to be the best) and Pink (image of innocence).
API — Awesome Pretty Idol
APRIL — It means, “the girl you can’t help but love”, because ‘A’ means the best, while ‘Pril‘ means a lovable girl.
AST’1 — A STar 1
ASTRO — Means star in Spanish.
ATEEZ — A TEENagers Z. Where teenagers from A-Z (everyone) can be fans.
AZM — This girl group makes music from A to Z.
A-JAX — It is in reference to the mythological Greek hero that helped bring victory to the Greeks during the Trojan War.
A.C.E — Adventure Calling Emotions, meaning that the group wants to cause emotions that urge people to go on adventures and make the dreams come true.
A.CIAN — Asia of Ace & Musician
A.N.D.S — Aneun Dongsang (A Dear Young Sister)
B1A4 — 1 member (Baro) has the blood type B, while his 4 other bandmates (Jinyoung, Sandeul, Gongchan, and CNU) have blood type A.
B2Y— Babyboys 2 Yearninggirls
Baby V.OX — Baby Voices Of Xpression
Baby V.OX Re.V— Baby Voices Of Xpression Renaissance Voices
BB.BOYS — Best of Best Boys
BBde Girl — Beauty Blessed de Girl
BEAST/ B2ST — Boys of East Standing Tall / Boys 2 Search for Top
Berry Good — The name indicates that the groups is formed to fullfill good fruition
Bestie — Short for bestfriend. They also wanted to use the name as a way of being closer to their fans.
Be. A — Be an Artist or Be Artist
BgA — Boys Generally Asian
BIGBANG — The group’s name was inspired by the Big Bang Theory, thus the group will make a big impact in the music industry.
BLACK6IX — Six boys of infinite possibilities
BLACKPINK — The color Pink is often used as a shorthand for prettiness, while the color Black often connotes sophistication and skill. It symbolizes that that the group is not only pretty, but has great talent as well.
BLK — Beyond Limit Key
Block B — Short for BLOCKBuster, aiming their desire to become blockbusters of the Korean music industry.
BoM — Blooming of Our Music
Botopass — Born To Be Passion
Boys Republic — Onejunn: “From the beginning we were told to choose our group name, Boys Republic become the final name after a few names. The meaning behind it, I would say is to fulfill the dreams, as when we get older we try to get it right, we have to keep up our dream, within our national republic everything can be done, like performance to show our color as a group or individually and we finally pursue it under Boys Republic name.“
BP RaNia — Black Pearl RegulAtioN of Idol in Asia
BPPOP — Bright Playful POP
BTOB — Born to Beat
BtL — Beyond the Limit
BTS — Short for “Bangtan Sonyeondan” which means bulletproof boy scouts. Their English name is Beyond The Scene.
BVNDIT — Be Ambitious N Do It
B.A.P — Best Absolute Perfect
B.Dolls — Bustling Dolls
B.I.G — Boys In Groove
CHI CHI — Creative electronic House Idol
Chocolat — French word for chocolate, the name also stems of the idea that each member is reminiscent of different flavors of chocolate.
CLC — CrystaL Clear
CNBLUE — Code Name Blue. The “Blue” signifies the image of each member. Burning represents Jonghyun. Lovely represents Minhyuk. Untouchable represents Jungshin. Emotional represents Yonghwa.
CRAVITY — Combined word of ‘CReativity’ and ‘GrAVITY’. It’s also an abbreviation of the phrase ‘center of gravity’. – Serim (Leader)
Crayon Pop — The group’s members have unique individuality like the colors of crayon. Pop means to hang-out and they have catchy songs.
C-Clown — Crown-Clown
C-REAL — Chemi Redee Effie AnnJ Lenny
Dal Shabet — literally meaning moon sherbet. The name was inspired by a legend about a grandmother who makes sherbet out of a moon.
Davichi — Korean word which means “the light”
DAY6 — There were originally six members representing the first six days of the week with their fans representing the seventh day; after a member left, they changed the meaning: 5 of the days represent the 5 members, and the 6th day represent the fans (it’s only 6 days because the Sunday is a rest day)
DIA —Do It Amazing , short for DIAmond
DIAWINGS — DIAmond + WINGS
DMTN — Desire Motivation Timing Now
ELRIS — Excellent Lovely Rainbow Innocent Sisters, it also means Alice (as in Alice In Wonderland).
EPEX — It is described as “the gathering of eight youths reaches eight different apexes.” It represents the 8 members forming a collective, powerful new team.
EvoL — Effective Voice of Ladies
EXID — EXceed In Dreaming
EXO — Short for EXOplanet
Fin K.L — Fin Killing Liberty
Fiestar — The name was derived from the Spanish word ‘fiesta’ which means festival – aiming to give excitement and energy to its listeners.
Fromis_9 — From Idol School; the 9 represents the number of members.
FT Island — Five Treasure Island
f(x) — Flower : Double X Chromosome
F.Cuz — For Century Ultimate Zest
F.I.X — Four Immaculate Xtraordinaries
(G)I-DLE — (G) = Girl, I = Represents each individual member, DLE = represents the Korean word ‘deul’, which is used to make plural forms of noun words, so (G)I-DLE means “A group of six individuals” – Minnie.
GFRIEND — They want to be sweet girlfriends to boys and a good friend to girls.
GI — Global Icons
Girl Friends — The idea came from true-life bestfriends.
Girls’ Generation — The name signifies “the time (generation) has come for the girls to take over the world”.
GLAM — GirLs be AMbitious
GP Basic — Girl Power Basic
Golden Child — Refers to a perfect child who is born once in 100 years and they are named so to lead the K-POP industry for the next 100 years as well as the future trend of music. We’ve named them so for that”- CEO Lee Jungyeop
GOT7 — They have 7 members and 7 is considered a lucky number.
GreatGuys — Each member has his individual trait, and when you combine all the members you get one Great Guy.
GWSN — Gongwon Sonyeo (Girls in the Park)
g.o.d — Groove OverDose
HALO — Hexagon of Absolute Light and Organization
HAM — Heart And Mind
HITT — Here Is The Top
HOT ISSUE — Honest Outstanding Terrific Issue
Hotshot — someone who does really well in the world of music
H.O.T — High-five Of Teenager
H.U.B — Hope U Bounce
Hi-L — High Insight Libre
iKON — They will be the icons who will represent Korea worldwide. The C was replaced with K to present that the icon were from Korea.
IMFACT — I’m Fact + Impact.
INFINITE — “Our name, INFINITE, means ‘limitless’. We never put a restriction on our possibilities, and we will always improve.” – Leader Sunggyu
IN2IT — Intuit/Into it; “the boys will make fans fall into their intuitive charms”.
I.B.I — Comes from the Korean word 일반인 [il-ban-in], meaning “normal people”. It also stands for I Believe It.
I.C.E — International Center of Issue
I.G — Inside Glory
I.O.I — Ideal Of Idol
I.M.U — Inspire. Music. Unite
IZ*ONE — 12 (IZ) girls as ONE
JeVice — JEwelry VoICE
JBJ — Just Be Joyful
JJCC — Jackie Chan Joint Cultures
JJ Project — members names are JB and Jinyoung
JQT — J is a common letter in the members’ names, QT – Quality or Quartet
jtL — Jang Woohyuk, Tony, Lee Jaewon
Kara — Sweet Melody
K.A.R.D — (K)ing = BM, (A)ce = J.Seph, Colored/B&W Joke(R) = Jiwoo and Somin, Hi(D)den KARD = fans
KISS — Korea International Super Star
KNK — Stands for K-pop kNocK. It means “to knock on the door of K-pop with their music.”
LABOUM — French word meaning “the party”.
LC9 — League Competition #9
LPG — Lovely Pretty Girls
LUSTY — Lively, Sturdy, and Robust
LOOΠΔ — 이달의소녀, literally meaning ‘girl of the month’. The vowels were removed and scramble the letters that form the word LOOΠΔ.
Lovelyz — They named the girls, Lovelyz because they are lovely.
MAIN — Music Aspire Impressive Narrative
Mamamoo — “It signifies the sound that babies make. ‘MAMA’ means mother. So it means that we want to approach our listeners organically and instinctively with our music.”
MASC — Short for MASCuline
MaskOT — Mask Of Thetis
MBLAQ — Music Boys Living in Absolute Quality
MCND — Music Creates New Dream
Miss A —It signifies that the girls will cultivate A-class talents in everything they do and become the best in Asia.
MONSTA X — They are the monsters who will dominate the K-POP scene. And ‘mon’ meaning ‘my’ in French, thus ‘My Star’.
Moonlight Girls / DBSN — M.Light.G / Dalbit Sonyeo
MYTEEN — Short for MYTEENager
MXM — More X More; Mix & Match
M4M — Mystical Formula; M– passion, mystery and infinite possibilities, 4– number of members
M.I.B — Most Incredible Busterz (originally known as Bastardz)
M.I.L.K — Made In Lovely Kin
M.I.S.O — MagIc Souls of Oriental
M.Pire — Combination of music and vampire
NCT — Neo Culture Technology
Ne-P — New Passion
Nine Muses — The group’s name was derived from Nine Muses in Greek Mythology.
New F.O — New Five Order
N.CUS — No. Competitors Under The Sky
N.E.X.T — New EXperiment Team
N.Flying — means New Flying
N.O.M — No Other Man
N-Sonic — Neo Sonic
N.TiC — New Trend Icon
NCT U -—The “United” team where songs are assigned to any NCT member or members based on who is the best fit.
NCT 127 — NCT 127 is based in Seoul, South Korea with the number “127” representing the longitude coordinate of Seoul.
NCT Dream — “We want teenagers to have dream and hope through our songs.” – Mark (NCT Dream Member)
NRG — New Radiancy Group
NTB — New Town Boyz
NTB — Naughty Boys
NU’EST —New Established Style Tempo
O-24 — Means the group is thinking about Hip Hop songs all day long (from 0 to 24 hours)
ONF — On N Off
Pascol — Pastel Color
PENTAGON — It means that all members excel in five areas (Vocal/Rap, Dance, Mind, Talent and Team Work).
Pristin — Portmanteau of prismatic (bright and clear) and elastin (flawless strength)
PRITZ — Pretty Rangers In Terrible Zone
Puretty — Portmanteau of Pure and pretty
P.O.P — Puzzle Of POP
Q.O.S — Queens Of Sound
RAINZ — RApturously INspiriting BoyZ
Re.F — Ruff Easy Flava
Red Velvet — The group’s name represents their different concepts and image. Red signifies their fierce and bold image, while Velvet shows their smooth and calm image.
Roo’Ra — Roots of Reggae
Rubber Soul — Inspired by Beatles album, “Rubber Soul”
Rumble.G — Rumble.Generation
SeeYa — See You Always / See You Againhh
SEVENTEEN — 13 members + 3 Units + 1 Team = 17
SG Wannabe — Simon Garfunkel Wannabe
SF9 — Sensational Feeling 9
SHINee — A combination of shine meaning light, and the suffix ee, therefore meaning “one who receives the light”
Shinhwa — Shinhwa is the Korean word for myth or legend.
SHU-I — So Hot Union of Idols
Sistar — Portmanteau of sister and star
Skarf — The name came from the word Scarf. S means Singapore while K means Korea, since they promote both in Singapore and Korea.
SKYLE — Show the Kinetic & Youth Leading a new Episode
Snuper — Higher than Super
SOLIA — Special Our Light Influence Artist
Sonamoo — Literally meaning pine trees.
Spica — Named after Virgo’s brightest star
SS501 — Super Star: 5 United As 1
STAYC — Star To A Young Culture
Stray Kids — Their group name is sort of a play on the phrase “children out of the house” which means lost kids. Their concept is wild and carefree teens.
Super Junior — The name represents the time when the members were young as SM trainees and were considered the best (‘super’) in every field
S.E.S — Sea (Bada), Eugene , Shoo [named after the members’ names ]
S.I.S — Serependity In Stars
S.L.I.M — SunLight In the Morning
TEEN TOP — Teenager Emoboy Emotion Next Generation Talent Object Praise
The Boss — The Boys Of Super Space
Tiny-G — Tiny Giant
TOUCH — The Original Undeniable Charismatic Homme
TRAX — Typhoon of the Rose Attack on XMas
TRCNG — Teen Rising Champion in a New Generation
TWICE — The group wants to capture people’s attention twice: through their eyes (with their looks) and ears (with their music).
Two X — The members’ name are Top, Win and One, the X stands for multiplication.
TVXQ — Tong Vfang Xien Qi
TXT — TOMORROW X TOGETHER
T.G.U.S — The Guys Using Sound
T.O.A — Top Of Asia
T.T.M.A — To The MAXIMUM
T-ara — The name connotes their aim to emerge as the queen in the music industry and wear a beautiful jeweled ‘tiara’
UN — United N-generation
UNB — You and Unit B
UNI.T — Unity
UNIQ — Unique + Unicorn
UP10TION — Unbelievable Perfect 10 members Teenagers Idol Open Now
U-KISS — Ubiquitous Korean International Idol Super Star
VICTON — VoICe TO New World
VAV — Very Awesome Voice
VIXX —Voice, Visual, Value in Excelsis
VNT — Voice of Ninety-Two
VOISPER — Portmanteau of VOIce and whiSPER.
VOS — Voice Of Soul
W24 — World 24 Hours. Hoping their music would be heard all of the world for 24 hours.
Wanna One — Wanna One sounds like ‘101’, and they chose that name because the band was formed through the show Produce 101.
Weki Meki — Fantagio states that in one meaning of the name “WekiMeki,” “MeKi” refers to eight unique girls who each hold keys that identify one another and “WeKi” refers to the girls as a group once they meet and come to possess another key that opens a new world. The name is twofold, with another meaning for the name taking the “we” and “me” from the two words to form “WEME,” signifying the eight members coming together
WINNER — The name ‘WINNER’ was given to them (‘Team A’) after they won all three rounds of public voting.
WINGS – inspired by Little Mix’s song, “Wings”
XENO-T (Formerly known as Topp Dogg) — Xenogenic and ToppKlass (their fandom name)
XING — Crossing(X) in New Genre
X-5 — Xenos 5
YMGA — Young Men’s Gangsta Association
ZPZG — Zest Play Zest Grow
Post by Sevenne
(Special thanks to FerdinandChan, RiRiFaustino, EunBiChan, 이대휘, Ash, mollie, Coolixted😇, Hidden KARD, KPOP101, wat is luv, Qjdj, Ha Linh Nguyen, Once for Twice, SaltyDorito, hello, Monica Hagen Christofaro, Kendall sharp, Jen, Junin Kumi, Hunnnn)
Did you know the meaning behind these band names? What is the band whose name’s meaning is the most interesting in your opinion?
