Results of Evolve a Band Name!

Here are the results from yesterday’s Evolve a Band Name experiment.  The top three names were ‘Chessclub’, ‘Cloaca’ and ‘Protons versus Neutrons’! I have to say, there is a lot of creativity evident in the data!  Also, a technical oversight on my part leads to a lesson about cultural evolution…

If you haven’t taken part yet, go here!

Method
Participants were presented with 10 band names for 20 seconds. They had to memorise them and then they were asked to reproduce each one. They entered names one at a time and were prevented from entering names that they had already entered. After entering 10 names, the participants were given a score (based on Levenshtein distance). Their names were recorded and passed on to the next participant as their input.  At the time of writing, 144 trials had been recorded.

The analysis was complicated by a technical oversight. I assumed that only one person would play this at a time. I was running many chains (14) in parallel, and each person is assigned to a chain when they log in, but the chain list was not updated until they finished the experiment. The result is that a single chain could split into many chains, and I had no way of automatically recovering the history of transmission. Lesson learned.  If you’d like to see the raw data, look here (each line is a generation, each name separated by an underscore, first 7 lines of each file is the initial random stimuli).

Results
Here’s an analysis done by hand (click to expand).

None of the original words make it to the end of the chain. The ends of the chains are fairly deteriorated, as you might expect. Since the program forces participants to enter unique names, then there all strings are different, but they’ve regressed to repeated characters or characters that are close to each other on the keyboard.

Obviously, there are some strong prior biases – Names that relate to the task (‘I don’t know”, “my memory sucks”) and the context of the experiment (Replicated typo, evolutionary linguistics, the acacia tree in-joke etc.). But the real striking thing is the short lifespan of names – people invent a lot of names. This is probably due to the very tight bottleneck: There was only 20 seconds to memorise 10 names.

There are some nice instances of mutation such as ‘nomsky’ -> ‘chomsky’ and ‘Terrific Gandalf’s Purse’ -> ‘Terrific Gandalf’s Curse’.  There’s even a bit of recombination:  In another chain, ‘Space Monster’ and ‘Shape Grenade’ merge to become ‘Shape Monster’.  There’s also something that looks like selection for salience:  ‘Irridescent Glue Stick’ becomes just ‘Glue’, then ‘GLUE’.  It also gets gradually closer to the top of the list (people remembered it earlier).  There are a few instances of borrowing:  The ‘Magnotta’ variations are introduced by one player in two chains.  I particularly liked the evolution of “Power Hungry Tokyo Takedown” -> “Super Power Tokyo Takedown” -> “Super Power Tokyo Beatdown”.

Below you can see the average similarity of strings within a generation over time (left) and the largest common substring within a generation over time.  None of these indicate much of a change, apart from at the very end for largest common sub-string.

However, the average length of band names tends to decrease.

The best band name

In order to judge which was the best band name, the best I could do was look at the frequency of variants.  I wanted to count variations of the same idea together, so the names were grouped automatically based on Levenshtein distance and the longest common sub-string.

Of course, this isn’t entirely fair because of some chains split more, giving their names more of a chance to be copied.  In other words, it confounds names that were passed culturally, and names that have a strong prior bias and arose independently.  For example, a band name of the ‘Something X’ type evolved independently several times.  This is, in fact, Galton’s problem, and has been discussed recently by Levinson & Gray (2012).  The evolution of cultural traits is difficult because there are general patterns in the languages of the world, but it’s very hard to decide whether they have arisen because of the cognitive biases of humans, or are the product of being passed on by cultural transmission.

The top 15 most frequent nouns and verbs were: memory 29, acacia 24, go 22, something 20, all 19, quilt 18, sucks 17, protons 17, god 17, up 16, cloaca 16, neutrons 15, remember 14, nom 14, know 14

And finally, here’s the eleven (to commemorate Spinal Tap) most frequent band name variants that are not obviously cop-outs:

1. Chessclub
2. Cloaca
3. Neutrons v Protons
4. The Mathemagicians
5. Apeway
6. You me and alexander
7. Acacia Emergency
8. The Iterators
9. The F*ck Yeahs
10. Pocket Horse
11. Beeswing

I am not calling my band Chessclub, besides I found two bands and a record label called Chess Club.  Astoundingly Cloaca is also taken, even though it means fish anus.  Therefore, I declare the winner ‘Neutrons v Protons‘!

However, some of the others are possibilities.  I have to say, though, there was an awful lot of creativity, and honorable mentions go to Nameocolypse, Overwhelming Larger Animals, Leaked Memory, Owl Man, There will be Penguins, Calm a Lama Down and Sean’s Lusty Hips.

And here are all the names, sorted by their frequency of appearance in the experiment.  The counts include mutations of the original.

Chessclub 21

• chess club
• chesscluc
• chessclub
• chesscl8b

Cloaca 18

• coaca
• choaca
• cloaca

neutrons v protons 18

• neutrons vs protons
• neutron vs protons
• neutrons and protons
• neutron vs proton
• neutrons v protons
• protons and neutrons
• protons v neutrons

god my memory sucks 17

• god my memory sucks
• oh my god, my memory sucks
• god? my memory sucks
• gosh my memory sucks
• my memory sucks
• oh god my memory sucks

ijustmadethisup/ 14

• imadethisup/
• imadethisup
• ijustmadethisup
• ijustmadethisoneup
• ijustmadethisup/

The mathemagicians 14

• mathemagician
• the mathmagicians
• mathmagicians
• the mathemagicians
• mathemagicians

1 to go 14

• 1 to go
• 2 to go
• 3 to go

i don’t know 13

• i dont know
• i don’t know

apeway 13
The Helpfuls 13

• hello3
• the helpfuls
• hello6
• hello4
• hello5
• hello2
• hello

G 12
… 12

• ……..
• …
• ……
• …..
• ….

you me and alexander 10

• you me and alexander
• you me and alexandrovna
• you and me and alexander

acacia emergency 10
this is not a tpyo 9

• this is not a typo
• this is a typo
• this is not a tpyo
• this it a tipo

just making things up 9

• i’m just making this up
• just making things up
• just making this up

The Iterators 9

• iterators
• iterate
• iterative
• the iterators
• iterated

THe F*ck Yeahs 9

• the fuck yeahs
• fu*k yeah
• the f*ck yeahs
• f*uck yea
• f*uck yeah

Can’t Remember 9

• really cant remember
• can’t remember
• i can’t remember
• i can’t remeber
• cant remember

pocket horse 8

• pocket horse
• pocket horses

nough 8
beeswing 8

• beeswings
• beewings
• beeswing

Twice Cooked 8
A 8

• a
• the what
• what

owl club 7
nom nom nomsky 7

• nom nom chompsky
• nom nom chomsky
• nom nom nomsky

locker8 7
glue 7
1 names to go! 7

• 1 names to go!
• 1 name to go
• 2 names to go!
• 1 names to go

shingle finger 6

• marble fingers
• jingle bingo
• shingle finger
• single finger
• jingle finger

The Tansylvannians 6

• the trasnylvanians
• the transylvanians
• transylvanians
• the tansylvannians
• the transylvannians

REM 6
Prefecture 6
Plan 8 6
F 6
Dirigible Geeks 6

• dirigible penguins
• digable penguins
• dirigible geeks

Black Sabbath 6
… 6

• …
• ..

ygwy 5

• ygwy
• ygy
• ygyt

thats all now 5

• thats all now
• that’s all now

sung sweet 5
sf 5
sean help I’m trapped in a loop 5

• sean help i’m trapped in a loop
• i’m trapped in a loop
• help sean i’m trapped in a loop

remember 5

• remember tis
• remember

r 5
not sure 5

• not sure
• im not sure

hokey toke 5

• honkey tonkey
• wonkey tonkey¨
• hokey toke
• hokey tokey

guess 5

• guess3
• guess2
• guess
• *guess

ff 5
dizzy wizzy 5

• dizzy wizzy
• fuzzy wuzzy
• wizzy dizzy

asd 5

• sd
• asdf
• asd

acacia something or other 5

• acacia something or other
• acacia something

aa 5

• aa
• aaaa
• aaaaa
• aaa
• aaaaaa

Lunar barbie 5
Just named 5
Hammerfisters 5

• the hammerfisters
• hammerfisters

E 5
ywy 4

• yrwy
• ywry
• ywy
• yry

tttt 4

• tttt
• ttt

the somethings 4

• the somethings
• something

the lawnmowers 4
the diesel effect 4
terrific gandalf’s purse 4

• terrific gandalf’s curse
• terrific gandalf’s purse

tba 4
qwe 4

• qwe
• qw

quilt guilt 4

• quilt guilt
• guilt quilt

not remembered 4

• not remembered
• not remembered again

mao money mao problems 4
liza minelli 4
lamb and mutton 4
l 4
k 4
just guessing 4
j 4
i forgot 4

• shit i forgot
• i forgot

help 4

• help
• help!

hell’s day 4

• hell’s gate
• hell’s day

haberdasher 4
god 4
fs 4
applepie 4
all the others were crap 4

• all the others were crap
• the others were crap

Stevenage 4
Something About Barbie 4

• something about al
• something about all
• something about barbie
• something about ai

Killed Whizz 4

• killed whizz
• skilled whizz

Just read the instructions 4
Fresh to the Scene 4

• fresh to the scene
• new to the scene

Cock Spore 4
— 4

• —
• —

wut 3
werwe 3
we cannot get out 3

• i can’t get out
• we cannot get out

unemployed fungus 3
the yoo heas 3

• yee heas
• the yoo heas

the inverts 3
that’s all folks 3

• that’s all folks
• that’s all folks!

systematicity 3

• systematicity
• systemacity

ss 3
sorry 3
shrinking tiger 3
ripple of the honeyflea 3

• ripple of the hockey flea
• ripple of the honeyflea
• ripple of the honey flea

qweqweqw 3

• qweqwewqeqw
• qweqweqweqweqweq
• qweqweqw

policepolitique 3
plastic attack 3

• majic attack
• plastic attack
• plasitk attack

perverted 3
papaparty 3
oh I get it now 3
not sure again 3
not my bedtime 3

• owl bedtime
• not my bedtime

mistake 3
make something up 3

• make something up
• make somthing up

magnotta’s kittens 3

• magnotta’s kittens
• magnotta’s kitten

m 3
luka magnotta 3

• luka magnotta
• viva magnotta

koveted 3

• koveted
• coveted

jungle fungle 3

• jungle funfle
• jungle fungle

i just made this up 3

• i just made this up
• i just made this up\

hehe 3
grand 3
godspee 3
blur 3
all the rest 3
alien majig 3
Too simplified 3
The Owl Man 3

• jump man
• the owl man

The Iterated learners 3

• the iterated learners
• iterated learning

Squashdasher 3
Something replicate 3

• something replicate
• something leprekon

Sinking Owl 3

• the winking widows
• sinking owl
• sinking owls

Sevenoaks 3

• sevenoaks
• seven oaks

Safety calling 3
Power Hungry Tokyo Takedown 3

• super power tokyo takedown
• super power tokyo beatdown
• power hungry tokyo takedown

Old School Divine 3

• old school jerky
• old school morning
• old school divine

Masters of Darkness 3

• the raiders of darkness
• the prince of darkness
• masters of darkness

Leaked Memory 3
Green Day 3

• green day
• green hats

Elvis 3
Downshift an elephant 3

• downshift an elephant
• downshift and elephant

Contra Quilt 3

• contra quilt
• contra quiz

C 3
Band 3

• band
• the band

B 3
Ape Skyway 3
111 3
– 3
whocaresaboutthenameanyway 2
weqwe 2

• wqeqwe
• weqwe

ts 2
tirori 2

• tirori
• tirora

the trilinguals 2
the itirators 2
the fuckyeahs 2
the fistybembers 2

• fistymembers
• the fistybembers

the acacia trees 2

• the acacia trees
• acacia exit

talented whore 2

• talented whore
• talented noise

sugar blast 2
steve and roger 2
sixteen shades of crazy 2

• 16 shades of crazy
• sixteen shades of crazy

siht 2
see sharp 2
science club 2
res 2

• res
• rest

rebard 2
qwewqeqweqweq 2

• qwewqeqwewqewqeqwe
• qwewqeqweqweq

quilt life 2
quilt cock 2
qhimp quilt 2
primordial grooves 2

• primordial groove
• primordial grooves

penis 2

• penis
• tennis

paperclip 2
never let go 2
monkey apes 2
memorable band name 2
ljh 2

• ljh
• lj

let me out 2

• get me out
• let me out

kung? pow emperor 2
just acacia 2
jumpman 2
hypnotic sun 2
housecoat 2
fortitude 2
fas 2

• fas
• fjas

evolution 2

• evolution
• revolution

emergency acacia 2
elusive 2
eastwood 2
eab 2

• eab
• ab

don’t 2

• dont
• don’t

dfgdfg 2
dfg 2

• dfg
• dfgs

damn my working memory 2
damn my general memory 2
cunning linguist 2

• the cunning linguists
• cunning linguist

crass 2
correlation machine 2

• correlation machine
• replication machine

cinnamon cake 2
ciarce 2

• ciarce
• cierce

chunder vom boke 2

• chunder vom blokes
• chunder vom boke

celtic microwave 2
cccc 2

• cccc
• ccc

buttpluh 2

• buttpluh
• buttplugs

beatles 2
barry and the baratones 2

• barry and the baratoners
• barry and the baratones

anything goes 2
acacia didn’t notice 2
Wrong King Kong 2
Wizardry 2

• the wizard of al
• wizardry

Whiggidy whiggidy wack 2

• whiggidy whiggidy wack
• whiggity whiggity whack

Western Super Mayor 2
Wallawalla 2
Use It! 2
Twa Dogs 2
Toe Nail Fungus 2

• toenail fungus
• toe nail fungus

Toaster attack 2
Those in peril out in space 2
The Truth of All Lies 2
The Oneders 2

• the oneders
• one

The Brainmelts 2

• brainmelts
• the brainmelts

Straight 8 2
Stick Insect 2
Split life 2
Shoddy Worksmanship 2

• shoddy worksmanship
• shoddy workmanship

Scorpions 2
Sausages and Clash 2

• sausages and clash
• sausage and smash

Safety in the Bathroom 2
Rolling bones 2
Replicated This 2

• the replicated typos
• replicated this

RECALL 2

• recall
• recall!

Overwhelming Larger Animals 2

• overwhelming larger animals
• overwhelmingly larger animals

Nopes 2
Neck Pain 2
Natural Selection 2
Nameocolypse 2

• nameocolypse
• nameocalypse

Music 2
Mothra 2
Modern Contraption 2

• modern contraption
• modern contraception

Mnemonic Harmonics 2

• mnemonic harmonics
• nemnonic harmonics

Memory joggers 2

• memory jogger
• memory joggers

Matt and the Linguists 2
Made of Metal 2
Left Wing People 2
King Elizabeth 2
Kids with thunder 2
Just read the manual 2

• read the manuel
• just read the manual

Iridescent Glue Panel 2

• iridescent glue stick
• iridescent glue panel

Interative Banana 2

• iterative banana
• interative banana

Impending Fuzz 2

• impendence fuzz
• impending fuzz

I have no idea 2
I can’t believe my memory is this poor 2
Hostile Takeovers 2
Honkey Puck 2

• honkey puck
• hockey puck

Gypsy squid 2
Godsend prick 2
Gin Gan Goolie 2
Etched in Bone 2
Elderflower Cordial 2
Duck Search 2
Drafty Panties 2

• drafty panties
• drafty pants

Donkey Rectum 2
Cut the Chord 2

• cut the chords
• cut the chord

Condensed Curve 2
Clockwork Tiger 2

• clockwork tiger
• clockwork orange tiger

Captain flash 2
Calm a Lama Down 2
Call Me AL 2

• call me now
• call me al

Boot Quiz 2
Bloodly Rifle 2

• bloody rifle
• bloodly rifle

Binarhyme 2
Astroturf 2
Amnesia 2
Ambrosia 2
Adjective nouns 2
Absent Fetish 2
? 2
3, 2, 1 Contact! 2

• 3, 2, 1, contact
• 3, 2, 1 contact!

123 2
10 is a lot! 2

• 10 is alot
• 10 is a lot!

yume 1
ym 1
wrath of quincy 1
wqe 1
whizz buzz 1
white powder 1
what the heck 1
what have you 1
wham jah! 1
well crap 1
way fighting upwards 1
waterfront express 1
wall 1
walkingclogs 1
vocalisation 1
viva viva 1
up 1
unique tampon angel 1
uglymods 1
typo 1
twinkletwinkle 1
ttttt 1
tre 1
they’re out to get us 1
they are coming 1
there’s no way out 1
the ting tongs 1
the penguins 1
the outside 1
the monkey in the room 1
the iritations 1
the inside 1
the fuckfisters 1
the flaming midgets 1
the earwax conundrum 1
the blah adventurers 1
the 1
that’s unsanitary 1
that’s over, yeah 1
that’s 1
tampon angels 1
swerv 1
supreme peasants 1
supreme archipelago 1
superhappyfuntimes 1
super junkie 1
stuckfuckcksutk 1
steps and ships 1
spittle 1
space 1
sousaphone 1
sorbet a gogo 1
something with Al 1
someone’s ballsack 1
silent owl 1
si 1
short term memo 1
shape monster 1
sean’s lusty hips 1
seam medicine 1
sdrawkcab 1
scrubscars 1
saggy briches 1
sadfs 1
sad 1
rust 1
rulygods 1
rock and rye 1
roadrage 1
rhgj 1
recall this 1
rawr 1
qwedsf 1
qwecc 1
qweasd 1
quimp gimp 1
quilt pastilles 1
quilt investment 1
quilt guilt 1
quickly my lord 1
qj 1
q 1
puter 1
primate vocalisation 1
pride 1
pow! 1
plastic stroke elastic 1
plain clothes detective 1
para para party 1
owlery 1
owl rage 1
orange revolution 1
oops 1
one of these 1
notable absence 1
no man knows us 1
no idea 1
neutrons and protons 1
name 1
my toes are wobbly 1
more info 1
mondays 1
monbijoux 1
meh 1
magnotta’s acacia 1
low blow 1
long titles are harder to remember 1
loads of quilts 1
listens to penguins 1
listall 1
let me 1
let it go 1
lazyfrogs 1
lasttime 1
kora 1
know 1
kju 1
kitten fist 1
kicking the groove 1
kh 1
keep the change 1
just 4 to go 1
jumping hotdogs 1
journey 1
illiterate something 1
i 1
how do I get this to stop 1
hhh 1
hello hats 1
heliosphere 1
happy monkey 1
happy hamsters 1
guess what 1
groovy digger 1
grave of the firefly 1
got this 1
gosh 1
golden leprekon 1
golden elf 1
god? speed you black emperor 1
gkjh 1
gfsd 1
gfdgdfg 1
gf 1
gellato! 1
gaddawakka 1
gaddablakadda 1
gabbadakka 1
g;ail 1
fungal leprechauns 1
fucking hell 1
fsdfsdf 1
free beer 1
freaks fusion 1
floppy rock 1
flesh candy 1
fishingrods 1
fg 1
face 1
erstwhile 1
erryday 1
erg 1
eman 1
elusive lingueme 1
elephant something or other 1
dowjbhegf 1
doublemouble 1
dirty lab 1
delleps 1
david crystal’s ballsack 1
dashaway (?) 1
das das 1
dang meringue 1
dancing lemons 1
daisydogs 1
cross the streams 1
clueless rage 1
clint and the clinton 1
chumba wumba 1
charmed 1
caut!on 1
car photo 1
can’t 1
campboot 1
calendar 1
by Galaxy! 1
broken 1
brick wall 1
bottleneck 1
boo boo blue sheep 1
blue hats 1
bloomin marvelous 1
bloodysods 1
blokes vom chunder 1
beware 1
bear claws 1
band name here 1
balloon why not 1
asw 1
ashole 1
arcacia 1
applesauce 1
angel tampon 1
and one more 1
anal cunt 1
alas! 1
aebe 1
Zyphox Twin 1
Zing Bow 1
Zina marina 1
Zesty Pillage 1
ZBoot 1
You, me and Vladimir Alexandrov 1
You naughty monsters 1
Yes, My Goldfish Dances 1
Yao Ming Revival 1
Wrong Caravan 1
Who’s playing it anyway 1
What me, no 1
WOBBLERS 1
Vector-Cyborg III 1
Vaginal Fermentation and You 1
Unintended Customer 1
Unhappy Bear 1
Underpaid mushroom 1
Undefined 1
Ultra Relativity 1
Twelve 1
Treble Twenty and the Ting Tongs 1
Topspin Lob 1
Too Many Legs 1
Toke 1
Time travellers 1
Tiddlypom 1
Thereminy ways to make you love me 1
There will be Penguins 1
The replicators 1
The memorizers 1
The long vowels 1
The Unicorn Chaser 1
The Top Notes 1
The Rumples 1
The Pinko Commies 1
The Needful 1
The Iterators The Prince of Darkness 1
The Forget-Me-Nots 1
The Big Bang Band 1
The Beagleators 1
The Beadles 1
Tenuous at best 1
Tentpeg Trollops 1
Swollen Gobnob 1
Sweat Pet 1
Surround 1
Sudo Sandwich 1
Sudden but inevitable betrayal 1
Stoofer’s Hoofers 1
Stiff Quilt 1
Stiff Barbie 1
Sticks and Stones 1
Stain 1
Spring 8 1
Splock 1
Sphincter Donkey 1
Sonic Rainboom 1
Something Skydressing 1
Socket weasel 1
Smiling 1
Sleeveless and Startled 1
Shapshifting Masters of Darkness 1
Scratch that itch 1
Santa Fe Wildfire 1
Sack Mage 1
Ripple in the System 1
Ripple Flea 1
Ring ding dang 1
Refracted Larynx 1
ReaLiez 1
Pseudonimous Manticore 1
Proven corridor 1
Percy Mash and the Intent 1
Percy Dingbat 1
Peer Reviewed 1
Oxygen 1
Organised Chaos 1
Open Sesame 1
Nuns on Fire 1
No one out-cakes Al 1
Nnn 1
New sweden 1
Native of Python 1
Nail Biters 1
Mouldy Circuit 1
MorningSaint 1
Mighty Eunuch 1
Mickey’s Unfortunate Surprise 1
Mickey says go 1
Merangue 1
Memory Drain 1
Memetic Mutation 1
Matt and the Queefers 1
Marcus and the Clocks 1
Lumpkin 1
Longevity 1
Learning 1
Lava Bread and the Baskets 1
LOOK OUT! 1
Koality Moosic 1
Kirby’s kings 1
Kevin 1
Karma Chameleon 1
Just replicate that 1
Just a guess 1
Jizz Bucket 1
Isle of dye 1
Iron ‘n’ Board 1
Insect Glow 1
In One Ear 1
IMPOSSIBRU! 1
I’ve got places to go! 1
I suck at this 1
I have no toes but I must wiggle 1
Hypnotic zeppelin 1
Hence the Fortress 1
Hell Is Other People 1
Green she said 1
Granite Kettle 1
Gordon and the Physists 1
Fundamental Metal 1
Fuck Yeah Dinosaur! 1
Frenzy Fancy 1
Flunk Punk 1
Fluid mosaic 1
FishFuzz 1
First or Last 1
First cold 1
Fire Farmer 1
Feral Screwdricver 1
Fat leprekon 1
Fantastic Mr Fox 1
Excuse me, no. 1
Exclamation! 1
Exchange 1
Evolved chaos 1
Elder Workshop 1
Dusty Glow 1
Doctor McAwesomesauce 1
Dingeling 1
Devoiced Schwa 1
Despondent Moose 1
Deliver Vagabond 1
Death and Gravity 1
Curl up and go away 1
Cubic Zirconium Jubilee 1
Crackers 1
Colourless Green Ideas 1
Codename: Kladdkaka 1
Classical Jerky 1
Cardboard owls 1
Butt Crunch 1
Bumpkin Bastards 1
Bumblebee Warfare 1
Booths 1
Boot Sector 1
Bone Crackin’ 1
Big Bad Boot Men 1
Best bones 1
Barroso 1
Awkward Customer 1
Arkady 1
Antisocial Penguins 1
Antiquated Python 1
Angry Gorilla 1
All My Singularities 1
Alderbrand 1
Ace of Bayes 1
56 times 1
*also guess 1