Simon Cowell on 'X Factor's' 1432 Name Change: 'It Was Just Crappy'

FOX

Simon Cowell is completely enamored by his groups category, specifically Emblem 3 and Lyric 145, but there is one act whose numbers just don't add up.

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1432, formerly known as LYLAS, is in the hunt for a new name, and this time Cowell wants the public to choose it.

"It was just crappy, the name. And I just couldn’t say it week after week," Cowell said in a postshow interview. "I think the public will get it right. It doesn’t have a natural flow to it. Emblem 3, Lyric 145, 1432 -- just too many numbers."

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Oddly enough, this is one issue two other judges, Britney Spears and L.A. Reid, agree on.

"I don't like that name," said Spears. "It's not good."

Reid has some experience in choosing the right name for his acts.

"I had an artist I worked with and her name was Alicia Moore. She was in a band named Choice, and I talked her into leaving the band to become a solo performer, but said she also needed a name," he said. "She came in with the name Mr. Pink. We dropped the Mr. and she became just Pink. But the point was she named herself after a guy character in the Quentin Tarantino movie Reservoir Dogs."

So what is Reid's advice?

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"They do need a name, The LYLAS was not a good name either. And what are they now … 1457-3270? That's really difficult," he said. "In picking a name, they should go with something that is near and dear to their heart or initials or whatever. A street name, a park in your favorite city, your favorite star in the galaxy, your favorite character from the Bible, favorite girl's name. Or, you know, what I like most -- a guy's name."

Cowell claims he had a method to his madness last night, choosing 1432 to go up against the harmonizing Sister C, and this played into his strategy to select a more fitting moniker.

"I was going to save 1432, and then I got a bit tactical because I’d heard them sing 'Skyscraper' and I thought, 'If the audience can hear this before next week, they are going to appreciate them as better singers,' " he said. "The risk was they could've screwed it up, and we could have lost them. So it was kind of a risky thing to do, but I think it worked."

Simon now says the girls have a higher public profile, which could lead to an even better name.

"Now they got to know them a bit better I think it will be a help," he said.