Bands that are victims of having a name that allowed them to be pre-judged and dismissed by people before being even listened to...

Really? I would assume they either sound like Phish or that they're a party-funk campus band.

uggh

Dismemberment Plan has the same sort of incorrect connotations, I think.

The Arctic Monkeys (My personal pick so far)

Bark Psychosis certainly outgrew their name which was coined by a couple of prodigious adolescents and is way too garage-goth for the music they wound up playing.
Live Skull is a bandname that has similar cod-cheapo-schlock-horror garage goth associations which don't really fit what the band was about. I still like Positraction anyway.
Not sure what associations I'd make to the name The Birthday Party if I wasn't as immersed in history of what the band means to me.

This is an interesting take on things re: Bands who outgrew their names.

The Beach Boys being a key example.

band : skull snaps

album cover :

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/1/1e/SkullSnaps.jpg

saw this in the racks last year.

was very surprised to find out that its very good 70s soul-n-funk album as opposed to some barrel scraping metal dirge

I think it was Max Cavalera who said he enjoyed misleading titles: "Roots Bloody Roots" sounding like a reggae album, and Soulfly etc...

bombay bicycle club

yeah, every time anyone asks me to check those guys out, my brain starts shutting down.

BombBicClub TS: The sound that the band name suggests vs what they actually sound like

Depeche Mode.

10,000 Maniacs

Two Lights

Shit Robot is pretty good but I feel bad listening to him. Just because I don't think any artist should refer to themselves as "shit".

This is an interesting take on things re: Bands who outgrew their names.

The Beach Boys being a key example.

yeah but I don't think they'd sell many records as "The Beach Guys"

Even less as The Beach Weirdoes

But more as "The Beach Men!"

The Charles Manson Five

tUnE-YaRdS

An ex of mine was in a band called Giant Sucking Sound. I told him it was a bad idea to give critics such an easy insult. (POP CRITICS IN LAZINESS NON-SHOCKER!!)

xp I'd also put fIREHOSE on that list, it just breaks my brain

for me at least, Ween

up until a few days ago I had never listened to ween, now I do

I never minded the name Ween, for me it was just the fact that their name was close to Weezer so I'd subconsciously mix them up

Personal and the Pizzas

Cat Power
Eagles of Death Metal
Hella
Passion Pit
The Sea and Cake
Young Marble Giants