25 things even die-hard fans probably didn't know about One Direction

• One Direction formed in 2010 and they've been on indefinite hiatus for the last six years.

• Liam Payne, Louis Tomlinson, Harry Styles, and Zayn Malik have gotten matching tattoos.

• Payne has a tattoo of lyrics from the band's unreleased track "Man on a Mission."

Simon Cowell said it took him 10 minutes to come up with the idea to combine solo artists Horan, Malik, Payne, Styles, and Tomlinson into a group.

In 2010, Horan, Malik, Payne, Tomlinson, and Styles auditioned as solo artists for "The X Factor," a singing-competition show based in the UK.

The five of them were eliminated early on in the competition, but judges Simon Cowell and Nicole Scherzinger invited them back for the opportunity to compete together as a group, thus forming One Direction.

The group went on to place third in the competition overall, but they still secured a record deal with Cowell's label, Syco.

Cowell later told the band during the 1D Day web event in 2013 that it took him 10 minutes to come up with the idea to combine the five of them into a group.

They were almost called an entirely different name that Payne's dad suggested.

During a 2019 interview on "The Tonight Show With Jimmy Fallon," Payne said that his father, Geoff, initially suggested that the boys adopt the band name USP — short for Unique Selling Point.

Of course, this did not have quite the same ring that One Direction did, and it was immediately shut down.

Styles is widely credited with coming up with the band's name, which he's said doesn't really have a special meaning.

Their United States debut became a significant part of UK music history.

With their first full-length album, "Up All Night," One Direction became the first UK-based musical group to debut at no. 1 on the US Billboard 200 album chart.

According to a statement that the band's label, Syco, gave Reuters, the band sold more than 176,000 copies of the album within minutes of its official release.

Prior to joining the band, Malik had never flown on an airplane.

The Bradford-born singer said on "The Jonathan Ross Show" that the first time he'd ever boarded a flight was with his fellow One Direction bandmates.

Malik told the host that he was initially nervous about the experience — and that Tomlinson made it even worse.

" ...  I was quite nervous about it so before the plane took off I'm sat with Louis on one side and Liam's on the other — and Louis goes, 'Right when it takes off it's gonna do a loop-de-loop in the air,'" Malik recalled to the host. "So I remember, for like 20 minutes of the journey, I was waiting for it to go upside down. Just terrified."

One Direction was once the opener for fellow boy band Big Time Rush.

Big Time Rush, the US-based boy band that had a Nickelodeon show from 2009 to 2013, once had One Direction has their opening act.

1D was the opener for part of the North American leg of Big Time Rush's first national tour, the Better With U tour.

Per J-14 magazine, one of Big Time Rush's members, Kendall Schmidt, later told Teen.com it "sucked" having 1D as their opening act.

"Let's put it this way: when One Direction were opening for us, their support was blossoming," Schmidt said, per J-14. "As cool as it was to hang out with them, it sucked for us because there would be 2,000 girls outside the show singing their songs, even though we were headlining."

They had secret games that they played with each other to keep themselves entertained during press days.

In an April 2020 YouTube video, Payne said One Direction used to use code words to get out of "boring" things they didn't want to do.

"When we didn't, like, wanna go somewhere ... we'd just have a word —  it was like a code word — where we'd all just fall on the floor and lie there until everybody went away, which I think is the best game we ever invented," Payne said.

He added, "There were a number of code words ... like, 'Help me!'"

They were brand ambassadors for the Pokémon Black and Pokémon White video games.

In 2011, One Direction partnered with Nintendo UK and became brand ambassadors for the company's Pokémon Black and Pokémon White video games.

They even performed at the launch party in London to celebrate the game's release.

Four out of the five band members have matching tattoos.

In an interview with Glamour UK, Tomlinson and Malik revealed that the four British members of the band have crosses inked on their ankles.

In a later video with AskAnythingChat, Tomlinson said this bit of ink kicked off his tattoo addiction.

"We decided — well most of us actually except for Niall — as a band to get these little ones on our ankle," he explained. "And then I suppose I just started getting addicted."

Additionally, Tomlinson and Malik have corresponding "Bus 1" tattoos, which are believed to reference the band's tour bus.

Horan remains tattoo-free to this day.

Payne once described One Direction's sound as a "Pink in a boy band form."

In an early interview with Teen Vogue in 2012, One Direction seemed to imply their songs had more of an edge to them than standard pop music.

Payne told the publication, "We've always described our sound as a bit more guitar driven than normal pop music. Kind of Pink in a boy band form. We've heard a few people say that so now we use it. I think Pink is amazing person to be compared to."

The Grammy-winning artist Pink is known for her edgy, pop-rock music.

In addition to appearing on countless talk shows, the band appeared as themselves on episodes of "Family Guy" and "iCarly."

During the early days of One Direction, all five boys appeared on an episode of the popular Nickelodeon series "iCarly."

The 2012 episode follows a plot where Harry contracts a fictional disease known as "jungle worms."

Several years later, all of the band members – except for Malik — voiced animated versions of themselves for an episode of Fox's "Family Guy."

Between 2010 and 2017, they won more than 200 awards and accolades.

In addition to becoming a global sensation, One Direction racked up an impressive number of accolades during their five years together.

They have seven Brit awards, six Billboard Music Awards, seven American Music Awards, and four MTV Video Music Awards.

They also currently hold the record for most Teen Choice Award wins, earning 28 overall.

Some members of One Direction have had Twitter feuds with members of the UK boy band The Wanted.

In 2012, drama broke out between members of The Wanted and One Direction when Malik called The Wanted member Max George a "wannabe."

According to E! Online, the feud escalated with a series of back-and-forth exchanges that included a range of insults. For example, Malik called George "chlamydia boy" and George tweeted for Malik to "Stay off the bud...It makes you cranky."

Tomlinson and The Wanted's Tom Parker also got involved. The so-called Twitter feud was reignited in 2013, and Payne also joined in.

Although many of these tweets have since been deleted, these public disputes fueled a rivalry between The Wanted fans and One Direction fans.

The Wanted went on an indefinite hiatus in 2014.

One Direction has collections of office supplies, dolls, singing toothbrushes, and fragrances.

As 1D grew into a cultural phenomenon, the group began to stamp their name on more products than just CDs and sweatshirts.

They've released multiple fragrances – including one called Our Moment and another called That Moment — and a limited-edition collection of stationery supplies with Office Depot. 

In 2012, the group paired with Hasbro to release a collection of dolls in their likeness that quickly sold out. They also had a line of Brush Buddies singing toothbrushes that played some of their hit singles.

One Direction has been longtime friends with James Corden.

Over the years, the boys have cultivated many friendships with high-profile celebrities, but one of the most notable is their bond with "The Late Late Show" host James Corden.

Corden reportedly met One Direction in the early days of their careers thanks in part to Tomlinson, whose late mother once worked on a UK television program that featured Corden as an actor.

He soon became a trusted friend to the budding stars, with Tomlinson once calling him one of the band's mentors. Tomlinson, Horan, and Styles even attended the TV host's wedding in 2012.