C
- Cansei de Ser Sexy – Portuguese for "tired of being sexy", an alleged quote of Beyoncé Knowles, one of the largest musical influences upon this Brazilian band.
- Childish Gambino - Donald Glover used a Wu-Tang Clan name generator his sophomore year of college at NYU; imputing his real name and coming up with Childish Gambino.
- Coldplay - Chris, Jonny, Will & Guy were called "Starfish" originally and a friend's group was called "Coldplay". When they did not want the name anymore, "Starfish" asked if they could use it instead. The original Coldplay took the name from a book of collected poems.
- Crass - A reference to the David Bowie song "Ziggy Stardust" (specifically the line "The kids was just crass").
- Creedence Clearwater Revival - The band took the three elements from, firstly, Tom Fogerty's friend Credence Newball (to whose first name Credence they added an extra 'e', making it resemble a faith or creed); secondly, "clear water" from a TV commercial for Olympia beer; and finally "revival", which spoke to the four members' renewed commitment to their band.
- The Cure — The band's original name was Easy Cure, which was taken from the name of one of the group's early songs. The name was later shortened to The Cure because frontman Robert Smith felt the name was too American and "too hippyish".
- °C-ute (Cute) – The Japanese girl group was named by its producer Tsunku. According to him and the band's official website, the English word cute means "(little and) lovely, pretty". Wanting to somehow express the girls' overflowing fervor (enthusiasm), he substituted "°C" for "C".
Read more about this topic: List Of Band Name Etymologies