 the band name? Who's Hootie? I've heard that a lot of times. What's the story behind that name? Just two buddies of mine. One guy had big eyes and wore glasses kind of like mine. I started calling him Hootie. We were in Carolina Live, a show choir together. Everybody in the choir started calling him Hootie. His best friend, who was also in the choir, had these big cheeks and could do the Dizzy Gillespie thing.