They became a household name after appearing on The X Factor 16 years ago - but many people still have no idea what JLS stands for.

The boy band, consisting of members Aston Merrygold, Oritsé Williams, Marvin Humes, and JB Gill, was signed with Tracklacers under UFO before starring on The X Factor.

After wowing audiences, they came in second place after Alexandra Burke and signed with Epic Records under JLS. Some of their most popular songs include Everybody in Love, One Shot, Beat Again, and more recently, Eternal Love and Day One.

They changed their name from UFO, which stood for Unique Famous Outrageous, when appearing on the hit TV show as it was already in use by another band in the industry. They stayed true to the acronym theme and settled on JLS, which stands for Jack the Lad Swing, combining the phrase 'Jack the lad' and the urban music of new jack swing.

Commenting on this revelation on X (formerly Twitter ), one user said: "My whole world collapsed when I found out that JLS didn’t in fact stand for “just love songs” like I thought it did in 2010." Confused, one fan asked on Fanpop : "What does Jack the Lad Swing mean?" In response, one user said: "Jack the lad is a really old saying meaning like a man who is a bit cheeky, has loads of girls that like him. Cool and hangs around with his friends and has like a joke. And swing just makes it a bit more music-like."

Aston Merrygold, Oritse Williams, JB Gill and Marvin Humes of JLS attend The Global Awards 2020 (

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Another user added: "In the book it says: Jack the Lad is like a name for cheeky boys. And new swing is the kinda music they were into. So Marvin's ex-girlfriend came up with Jack The Lad Swing (JLS). They were originally called: UFO (Unique Famous Outrageous) but Simon Cowell told them to change it in Bootcamp."

A third user said: "Jack the lad was a saying years ago, and they added Swing on the end to make it cooler :) but I'm not too sure what it means." Active between 2006 and 2013 and 2020 to present, the band has been on tour this year and today released their 15th anniversary album, J15.

JLS's J15 – Anniversary Edition tracklisting:

1. Beat Again 2. Everybody in Love 3. Keep You 4. Crazy for You 5. Heal This Heartbreak 6. Close to You 7. Only Tonight 8. One Shot 9. Private 10. Don't Go 11. Only Making Love 12. Kickstart 13. Tightrope 14. Everybody in Love (Unplugged) 15. Crazy for You (Unplugged) 16. Beat Again 15 (Paul Woolford Remix) 17. One Shot 15 (Jess Bays Remix)