One Syllable Names for Boys

Téa Leoni and David Duchovny named their kid Kyd in 2002, but he usually goes by his middle name, Miller. Probably a wise choice, given the homonym.

Slash is here because model Amber Rose and Def Jam Records exec Alexander AE Edwards named their baby boy Slash Electric Alexander. Is it cool? Or is it violent and terrifying? Or is it both? We're going to go with Door Number 2 and place it in the same category as names like Dagger and Pistol, but we are not models or record execs.

Despite its genderless sound and appearance, Swayze is used for girls over 80% of the time.

A very Christmas-y Christmas baby name, that may avoid the Santa image by instead adopting the alternative spelling Klaus.

Spence is occasionally used as a name all on its own and it has more of a sense of completeness than many nickname-names.

Bartholomew is one vintage name with Biblical antecedents that hasn't risen again in the modern world, perhaps because short form Bart, as in Simpson, would be too difficult for a contemporary boy to bear. But antique nickname Bat might work better. Might.

Modern Danish form of Esger or Asger, borne by dancer Eske Holm, evolutionary geneticist Eske Willerslev and actor Eske Forsting Hansen.

A Slovene choice that periodically appears at the bottom of Slovenia's Top 100. It first appeared on the Slovenian charts in 2011, when parents started using Nal for its on-trend sounds. However, Nal has no etymological roots in Slovene.

Pronounced like Bruce with a hard K — not like Brook. Short names are very popular in Catalonia, and this rugged choice is a rare example of a botanical boy name.

A two-initial nickname occasionally used on birth certificates, with a disco vibe.

Actor Rhames's imaginative shortening of the prosaic Irving, giving it new life and energy.

Brain is not a name, it's a misspelling of the long-popular Brian. What's really astonishing is not that it made the Top 1000 at all but that it hung on there for 25 years, from 1965 through 1989, Brian's heyday. All we can say is: sad.

This very nouveau-sounding combination of Rhett and Riot was one of the fastest-rising boys names of 2017.

The jazziest nickname for Charles.

Howl joins the wild new gang of names with attitude to spare: We're talking Rebel, Rogue, Wilder, and Wiley. Howell makes it much more genteel.