K-Pop

The Rising Trend of Longer Names for Rookie Idol Groups: ZEROBASEONE, BABYMONSTER, And More

The team names of K-pop idol groups are getting longer.

The new HYBE boy group announced to debut on May 30th is named BOYNEXTDOOR. The team name implies the meaning of approaching without pretense and comfortably, just like “boys next door.” 

It is an expression commonly used to refer to someone with a friendly image like a “neighborhood kid” in English-speaking countries. 

boy-next-door

While the team names of the existing HYBE groups such as BTS, SEVENTEEN, ENHYPEN, LE SSERAFIM, and NewJeans are short, BOYNEXTDOOR (보이넥스트도어) stands out with its long seven letters in Korean.

S2 Entertainment, led by CEO Hong Seung Sung, will introduce a rookie girl group named Kiss of Life in mid-July. The team name is derived from words meaning “artificial respiration” or “source of vitality,” expressing their aspiration to bring a new breeze into the music industry with the members’ music and charm. 

The debut group formed through the recently concluded Mnet survival show “Boys Planet” is named ZEROBASEONE

ZEROBASEONE

ZEROBASEONE means the “brilliant beginning” of nine boys where “one” is born from “zero,” and it also includes a commitment to embark on a “free journey” from 0 to 1 together with the fans. 

Compared to the team names of groups born through previous Mnet’s survival shows such as I.O.I, Wanna One, IZ*ONE, X1, and Kepler, ZEROBASEONE has the longest name.

YG Entertainment is also preparing for the launch of rookie girl group BABYMONSTER. Similarly, compared to other artists debuting under YG Entertainment such as BIGBANG, 2NE1, WINNER, iKON, and TREASURE, BABYMONSTER has the longest name.  

babymonster

Until now, the team names of idol groups commonly consisted of 2 to 4 letters in Korean. This trend is particularly evident in girl groups.

4-letter names were common among 2nd and 3rd generation girl groups, such as Wonder Girls (원더걸스), Girls’ Generation (소녀시대), Girl’s Day (걸스데이), miss A (미쓰에이), Rainbow (레인보우), 2NE1 (투애니원), Apink (에이핑크), FIESTAR (피에스타), f(x) (에프엑스), Red Velvet (레드벨벳), Lovelyz (러블리즈), Oh My Girl (오마이걸), GFriend (여자친구), April (에이플릴), TWICE (트와이스), and WJSN (우주소녀).

For 4th generation girl groups, there has been a flood of 3-letter names, such as aespa (에스파), IVE (아이브), NewJeans (뉴진스), NMIXX (엔믹스), Kep1er (케플러), Lightsum (라잇썸), Weeekly (위클리). This strategy of using short team names is aimed at making a deeper impression on the general public.

However, what is the reason for the recent emergence of long team names consisting of 6 to 7 letters, breaking the existing norm? 

A music industry insider said, “As idol groups continue to emerge, it has become more difficult to find new names. They started using long names composed of various words to avoid similar names. However, they try to compensate for the disadvantages of long names by establishing abbreviations.”

Source: spotvnews. 

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