The original idea for the band's name was "Civilian," but it was dropped when members found out that it was already taken.
Morello later discredited the story, contradicting Commerford and Cornell, and commented that "Civilian" was merely a rumor circulating at the time.
He stated: "The band has only ever had one name, and that is Audioslave."
Morello described the origin of the "Audioslave" name to LAUNCHcast as follows:
That was Chris' suggestion that sort of came to him in a vision.
We're all on the two-way pagers, and Chris one night said, "I got it.
It's Audioslave."
We were all, like, "All right, fantastic." ...
To paraphrase Elvis Costello, talking about band names is like dancing about architecture—there's just no point in it because the band name becomes the music and the people.

After the name was announced, it emerged that it was already being used by an unsigned band from Liverpool.
The two bands worked out a settlement, with the American Audioslave paying $30,000 in a deal that allowed each band to use the name.
To avoid confusion, the Liverpool band would rename themselves "The Most Terrifying Thing."

The name was mocked by critics due to its uninspired nature, and was regarded as one of the worst in contemporary rock music, or even of all time.
Pitchfork called it the "most asinine bandname of the year," and Chuck Klosterman of Spin magazine chided it as "one of the dumbest band names in recent rock history."
The original idea for the band's name was "Civilian," but it was dropped when members found out that it was already taken. Morello later discredited the story, contradicting Commerford and Cornell, and commented that "Civilian" was merely a rumor circulating at the time. He stated: "The band has only ever had one name, and that is Audioslave." Morello described the origin of the "Audioslave" name to LAUNCHcast as follows:
That was Chris' suggestion that sort of came to him in a vision. We're all on the two-way pagers, and Chris one night said, "I got it. It's Audioslave." We were all, like, "All right, fantastic." ... To paraphrase Elvis Costello, talking about band names is like dancing about architecture—there's just no point in it because the band name becomes the music and the people.
After the name was announced, it emerged that it was already being used by an unsigned band from Liverpool. The two bands worked out a settlement, with the American Audioslave paying $30,000 in a deal that allowed each band to use the name. To avoid confusion, the Liverpool band would rename themselves "The Most Terrifying Thing."
The name was mocked by critics due to its uninspired nature, and was regarded as one of the worst in contemporary rock music, or even of all time. Pitchfork called it the "most asinine bandname of the year," and Chuck Klosterman of Spin magazine chided it as "one of the dumbest band names in recent rock history."
Audioslave