The album was originally going to be titled God Save Sex Pistols. Jamie Reid's cover concept refrained from including a picture of the group and instead was dayglo red and yellow in color with cutout lettering and a finish resembling crude screen-prints. The album's title changed in mid-1977, based on a phrase supplied by Steve Jones. Jones said he picked up the phrase “Never mind the bollocks” from two fans who would always say it to one another. Johnny Rotten explained its meaning as a working-class expression to “stop talking rubbish”.

In the United Kingdom, the album was subject to what Heylin described as “blatant acts of censorship exercised by media and retail outlets alike”. London police visited the city's Virgin record store branches and told them they faced prosecution for indecency as stipulated by the 1899 Indecent Advertisements Act if they continued to display posters of the album cover in their windows. The displays were either toned down or removed. However, on 9 November 1977 the London Evening Standard announced on its front page headline “Police Move in on Punk Disc Shops”, and reported how a Virgin Records shop manager in Nottingham was arrested for displaying the record after being warned to cover up the word “bollocks”. Meanwhile advertisements for Never Mind the Bollocks appearing in music papers attempted to politicize the issue, showing newspaper headlines about Sex Pistols controversies that were underlined with the message “THE ALBUM WILL LAST. THE SLEEVE MAY NOT.”