Girl Band have announced that they have changed their band name.

The group apologised to fans on 16 November for their original name, which they say was a “misgendered name” choice.

The group will be changing their name to Gilla Band with immediate effect – a name which alludes to their Irish roots.

The group said in a joint statement: “We are changing our band name. We will no longer be performing or releasing records under the name Girl Band. We apologise for choosing a misgendered name in the first place and to anyone who has been hurt or affected by it.

“When we were starting off it was chosen without much thought, from a place of naivety and ignorance. We had no grasp of the weight of it at the time and in the past few years have found it impossible to justify or explain this choice.

“Regardless of our intention the effect of the name has been damaging to individuals. To try and negate any unfortunate role we’ve played in propagating a culture of non inclusivity in music or otherwise, we have decided to change it.”

The group concluded: “Thank you to those who spoke up about it and educated us on this, either directly or indirectly. Moving forward we will be performing and releasing records under the name Gilla Band. Gilla being a given name taken from Old Irish.”

The group will are set to appear at Whelans in Dublin in January 2022 where they will performing new music in a residency at the venue, across three weekends.

Next year, they will also provide support to Idles on their February 2022 tour.

Before that, they are set to play a sold-out New Year’s Eve show in Limerick on 31 December.