The other names that BLACKPINK almost debuted

In 2016, YG Entertainment launched its new girl group: BLACKPINK. Formed by Jisoo, Jennie, Rosé and Lisathe quartet made its long-awaited debut on August 8, with the release of two singles, “BOOMBAYAH” and “WHISTLE”, tracks that became a huge success right from the start.

With “WHISTLE”, BLACKPINK has already achieved its first record, becoming the fastest group at the time to achieve a victory on South Korean music programs, winning the award just 13 days after making their debut on Inkigayo.

Since then, the girl group has gone from strength to strength, achieving unimaginable feats, such as being the first K-pop act to have two music videos with over 2 billion views, with “DDU-DU DDU-DU” (which currently has more than 2.2 billion) and “Kill This Love” (with 2.03 billion views).

Other impressive records also include: first K-pop girl group to perform at Coachella and headline; first k-pop group to have 1 billion views on YouTube; first k-pop group to win a VMA; artist with the most subscribers on YouTube; first K-pop girl group to reach the top of the Billboard 200 with the album “BORN PINK”; first K-pop girl group to enter Spotify’s Billions Club, with “How You Like That”; among many others.

However, although, nowadays, BLACKPINK has become a global phenomenon and has a huge legion of fans, known as BLINKs, in all parts of the world, something that many people may not know is that this was not always the name of the set.

Other names?

As reported by the Koreaboo portal, in an old interview, Jisoo went on to reveal some other names that the group almost adopted before becoming official as BLACKPINK.

One of the names revealed by the idol is already well known to fans: PinkPunk. Mentioned by the members countless times in different interviews over the years, this was one of the names most mentioned by YG to name the group. Besides him, Jisoo also mentions two other ways they were almost called: BABY MONSTER and Magnum.

“In fact, we almost debuted with ‘PinkPunk’ as our name. There was also ‘Baby Monster’, but the most shocking one was ‘Magnum’. I was very surprised when the name was about to change, luckily we debuted as BLACKPINK”, said the voice of “Flower”.

In old images from the quartet’s pre-debut period, it is also possible to see Jisoo, Jennie, Rosé and Lisa posing with bags where you can read the name “BABY MONSTER”. The photos were even published on the soloist’s official profile PSYwho was part of the company at the time, on X (formerly Twitter).

Although the name was changed to BLACKPINK, BABY MONSTER was never dropped by YG Entertainment, and was used to name their first girl group after the quartet.

BABYMONSTER officially debuted in 2024, with the track “SHEESH”, the title track of their first mini-album called “BABYMONS7ER”. Made up of seven members, Ruka, Pharita, Wing, Ramie, Ahyeon, Rora and Chiquitahis most recent release took place on November 1st, with the album “DRIP”. Check out the title track clip!