BTS's RM Reveals Why They Almost Named Their Fandom "Bell" Instead Of "ARMY"

BTS lovingly calls their fandom “ARMYs,” but they almost chose a different name!

In an interview on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, BTS was asked about the rumor that ARMYs were originally supposed to be called “Bells.”

Is it true that instead of calling your fans ARMY, you were originally going to call them ‘Bell?’

— Jimmy Fallon

The members immediately confirmed it. “Yes. That’s true.”

RM explained that “Bell” stems from the Korean word “bang wool,” which sounds like their name “Bangtan.”

So it’s kind of true because when you say BTS, it stands for ‘Bangtan’ in Korean, not ‘behind the scenes.’ I mean, for your information. It stands for ‘Bangtan,’ and when you say ‘bell’ in Korean, it sounds like ‘bang wool.’ It starts with the same word, ‘bang.’

— RM

Although he didn’t name the person, RM shared that the idea was brought up when they were deliberating on the fandom name.

So when we [thought] of the fan name, someone [brought] up the idea, like ‘What about the bell thing?‘

— RM

J-Hope then mimicked the way they would have greeted their fans, shouting, “Hi Bell!”

Hearing that, RM described how it was supposed to play out in concerts. Their fans would bring bells inside the venue, and they would ring their bells to make noise.