For decades, it’s been widely believed that Syd Barrett coined the name Pink Floyd around 1965 by combining the names of two American blues musicians—Pink Anderson and Floyd Council—as a tribute to the records he loved. However, new information suggests the name existed long before Barrett ever used it, reaching back as far as 1895.

A man actually named Pink Floyd was born on 5 February 1895 in Waskom, Texas, a small town between Marshall, Texas, and Shreveport, Louisiana. He was the son of Sam Floyd Sr. and Mariah (Richardson) Floyd.

Pink Floyd’s name appears at least three times in The Marshall Messenger newspaper—in 1917, 1918, and 1927.

• In 1917, he and other Black residents of Waskom signed a letter to the newspaper rejecting the “Texas a Black Republic” movement, a German attempt to incite a Black uprising.

• In 1918, the paper listed the Black men from the county who had been drafted into the army, including Pink.

• In 1927, it reported that Pink Floyd and Mattie Russell had applied for a marriage license.

These great articles can be seen below.

Pink Floyd passed away on 15 July 1983. He and his wife Mattie are buried in Lincoln Memorial Park Cemetery in Dallas, Texas.