led zeppelin name?  

I recently read that John Entwistle (bassist for The Who) has always laid claim to coming up with that quote, "...like a lead zeppelin", but Page and Jones, who were both present, still say it was Kieth Moon's words...a lil battle within the depths of rock-n-roll!

Actually, Led Zeppelin got their name by chance, they get the idea from Who, the only thing that they thought that they could lead all the world with their songs. Jimmy Page once quoted "We coul call The Vegetables. Led Zeppelin dont mean a thing!"

Actually, there is not relation with that they won't "fly". Jimmy Page was chatting once with Entwistle and Keith Moon and they said that they were all waiting for a banda that could lead the way for musicians and fans all over the world, those guy were the New Yardbirds. But they split, and Page said the idea for a blond lad called Robert Plant that liked it, and then, they just change the verb from Lead to Led and then, they had the name of one (if not THE) greatest bands in the history!

http://wiki.name.com/en/Led_Zeppelin
http://ledzeppelin.alexreisner.com/faq.html
http://library.thinkquest.org/4626/rock.htm
I found a few sites that discuss the orgin of the name...all pretty close

I bought a series of Led Zeppelin comics back in the early 90's that I had to unfortunately later sell because I was hurting for money. In one of these comics (which were set up as a chronological history of the band) it was stated that 3 other names that the band was considering using were: (1) The Bad Dogs, (2) The Mad Gods, and (3) Whoopie Cushion. I did some poking around the internet and found references to these 3, so it might actually be true.

I have always heard it was Kieth Moon as well, but I also was under the impression that this all took place during an interview with a BBC reporter and like the other gentleman said, the band was kicking around three other names as he said in his post about the comics. Which by the way are just about impossible to find and no telling what they would go for today. Anyway, as I understand it, both of the members from the Who were there along with a room full of other people. I don't think anyone really knows for sure who all was there unless there is a photograph and even then it might not have shown everyone.

Well as mikedotcom said it was one of the people in that press conference and the only way to know who said it for certain would be to get a hold of a copy of the reporters tape recording or notes, which to my knowledge have never surfaced. However, I'll go with Keith Moon seeing that's the kind of personality he had, however, I don't think he thought the band wouldn't make it, but I am fairly certain he had no idea of what kind of phenomenon they would become.

As far as why Jimmy changed the lead to led, I believe it was to leave no doubt in the pronunciation of the word, also if you look at the American definition of led, it suggest that one is leading someone or something from one place to another. So perhaps Jimmy had a dual meaning behind the name of the band, which led him and the rest of the band into a new kind of sensation that has yet to be rivaled. At least in MHO.