Fans are convinced of strange hidden meaning behind the 182 in Blink-182's name
Callum Jones
Featured Image Credit: Getty Images/Josh Brasted
Music lovers on social media are convinced of the strange hidden meaning behind 182 in Blink-182's name.
While we all know their tunes are pretty damn good, have you ever wondered why Blink-182 are called, well, Blink-182?
A lot of theories have been suggested online as to the meaning behind the name for the iconic rock band, with one particular Reddit thread discussing many of them.
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Taking to the band's subreddit, one person wrote: "But does anyone know why they went with 'blink' to begin with? I've never seen anyone talk about it really. We know they were blink, and added -182 because of another band with the same name. But why 'blink?'"
One theory detailed in the comments to the Reddit post read: "They consciously or subconsciously ripped it from the movie Turk 182. There were copyright issues with the name 'blink' so they flippantly added random numbers to get around it.
"However, given that it was a legal issue to begin with, they never wanted to admit the 182 was from that movie because they'd just have more legal s**t to deal with."
While another theory read: "I’m from San Diego and there was a story I once heard that 182 is the alphabet numbers. 18th letter is R and 2nd is B which is abbreviation for Rancho Bernardo where they started the band.
"Not sure if there’s any truth to that because I thought it was Poway where they started it, but it was a story floating around back in the day."
We don't know for sure of the hidden meaning behind the 182 in Blink-182, though a Dying Scene article has provided some idea.
Well, the 'Blink' part was created by co-lead and guitarist Tom DeLonge - though they were forced to change it due to an Irish electronica artist having the same name; they ultimately added '182' to the end.
A popular theory is that they decided on that number as it's the number of times Al Pacino says 'f**k' in Scarface.
But Matt Skiba, who was a member of Blink-182 from 2015-2022, has been quick to debunk this in the past.
"It’s not true because it’s not the correct number of times that Al Pacino said the f-word in Scarface," he told the Huffington Post in 2016. "What’s today’s story?"
Proving a different explanation, the guitarist said: "Turk 182!? That’s what I always thought it was. There was a movie in the '80s that I loved as a kid, there’s a high school hero kind of like 'Ferris Bueller.
"I first got a Blink record when it was just called Blink. When the 182 came along I thought it was [named after] Turk 182."