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No Use for a Name

American punk rock band

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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionSep 14, 2026
Entity authorityQ375364
Source-derived summary

No Use for a Name (sometimes abbreviated NUFAN or No Use) was an American punk rock band from Sunnyvale, California, formed in 1986 by Chris Dodge (guitar), Steve Papoutsis (bass) and Rory Koff (drums). The band's sound evolved considerably through its career, starting off as a Bay Area-influenced punk band, moving on to a much heavier metallic-tinted sound to finally taking on a much lighter brand of melodic punk as the years passed. Following Tony Sly's death on July 31, 2012, the remaining members chose to disband the group out of respect for him.

History

No Use For a Name was formed in 1986 by longtime friends Dodge, Papoutsis and Koff. The early rehearsals of the band had taken place at the Koff family house in Sunnyvale, where they also came up with the name for the band. During this era, the band was fronted by Papoutsis' friend John Meyer. Initially a four piece, it later expanded to a six piece, adding as a co-vocalist Ramon Gras and a second guitarist Doug Judd. The band experienced many line up changes during this period. In 1987, Dodge left to play in another Bay Area punk band, Stikky, while in summer that year, both Meyer and Judd left the band with Tony Sly replacing Judd on guitar. This line-up first appeared on Maximum RocknRoll's 1987 Turn it Around compilation, with the song "Gang Way".

Editorial summary

This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “No Use for a Name” as american punk rock band. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.

Editorial reviewA practical starting point whose main value is the path it opens into stronger specialist and primary sources. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1986, 2012, 1987—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1987. The account is most persuasive where Name, American and punk can be independently traced.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The subject matters to the general reference register because the source frames it as american punk rock band. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.

Evidence profile

Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 14, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q375364. VIAF identifies the subject as 155564584. The Library of Congress control number is no98104660. 3 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1986, 2012 and 1987.

Critical limits

Overview language is designed for orientation and should not be treated as a substitute for the evidence cited beneath it. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

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  2. Expand the search: follow No Use for a Name primary sources, No Use for a Name archive and Name research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from No Use for a Name” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.