Where did the name come from?

Guy Stevens is credited with coming up with the name.

On holiday (or prison — according to Guinness Rockopedia), he decided to catch up on a bit of reading and one novel that took his fancy was by Willard Manus. The hero of the story was one Norman Mott and the book was called 'Mott The Hoople'

It was published in the UK by Secker and Warburg in 1967.

I have read somewhere that a hoople was/is an American country bumpkin, I don't know how true that is, but I definately have that impression.

Anyway, prior to this the lineage of the band would be that The Silence, recently name changed from The Shakedown Sound, auditioned for Guy Stephens at Island in 1969. Their vocalist Stan Tippins was injured at the time and out of action, but when Stephens heard him he didn't think he was the man to lead his vision of a Stones/Dylan hybrid. The band would do and they auditioned for a singer/pianist which, eventually, turned up Ian Hunter.

So, the five man band became, initially, Savage Rose and Fixable as they recorded under the watchful eye of Stephens. However, once the album came to the public it, and the band, were to be named Mott the Hoople, after the Manus character.

If you need to know more (I'm sure you do), read Cambell Devines authorised biography…