Crazy Nicknames for Boys

Rarely used on its own and irrevocably tied to former House Speaker Gingrich -- who was christened Newton.

Not unless you want your son to grow up to be just like a wacky Jack Black character.

Fiery but slight middle name choice; much more apt to be a redhead's nickname.

Rock definitely has a macho image, if a somewhat caricatured one, ala The Rock. But with the rise of word names and also of tough guy names, Rock feels more plausible than it did a generation ago.

In the old days, this might have been a short form for Dewitt, but today it's more likely to appear as a witty word name. We approve.

Brixi was a Saxon lord thought to have erected a stone boundary of an ancient meeting place on the site that is now Brixton, a suburb in south London. Brixton is a newly fashionable boys' name and shortened form Brix was used for more than 40 baby boys in the US last year.

Dieter is a classic German name that got lots of satiric exposure via Mike Myers on "Saturday Night Live" a few years back. If mispronounced, it could conceivably be read as someone on a diet.

If Portia can become Porsche, then Apollo can morph into Polo -- the imprint of designer Ralph Lauren.

It's difficult to imagine anyone using the first name Jonesy -- and in fact, in the most recent US tally, there were nearly 100 babies named Jones but none named Jonesy. Still, this is a name that many people with Jones for a name, last or first, end up being known by, and as a nickname, it's sorta cute in a Skip, Chip, Bitsy kind of way.

Unisex variation of Jazz or Jasper that couldn't say it more plainly. Used for their daughter by tennis couple Steffi Graf and Andre Agassi.

Frisco is a frisky, roguish semi-place-name (San Francisco natives never call it that) that could make a lively, unusual o-ending choice.

A name that shows up on the Social Security roles of a hundred years ago. Let's hope it was a never-to-be-repeated mistake.

Superhero names are fit for humans today, and there's no reason Rambo can't take his place among a generation of babies named Loki, Odin, and Atlas.

Brother for Biff and Bud. McFly rocker Tom Fletcher transformed this from midcentury short form to modern cool name when he used it for his newborn son.

With the fashions for tree names, place names, and nickname names, Derry is a three-way winner.

Slim may be too on-the-nose for the child of two beautiful models, but it's the name Nara Pellman and Lucky Blue Smith chose for their son, Slim Easy. Smith, who has daughters named Gravity Blue and Rumble Honey, is known for choosing outrageous word names. But Slim — when pronounced as "SLEEM" — can also be a short form of the Arabic name Slimane. This origin is shared with Pellman's middle name, Aziza.

Boo as a first name first achieved notoriety as the name of the child-man in Harper Lee's To Kill A Mockingbird. Arthur "Boo" Radley was meant to be frightening, but only in a simple, non-threatening way. More recently, Boo has been used as the middle name of one of chef Jamie Oliver's children and the nickname in the middle of television's Honey Boo Boo. Boo is also the name of the world's cutest dog and of the adorable little girl in Monsters Inc. In a more basic way, Boo is a term of endearment.

Ax makes a somewhat threatening short form of the popular Axel, given to more than 3000 baby boys last year. It can also be used on its own, though it usually isn't. There were, however, seven baby boys named Axe in the US in 2015.

Sure, and we hope he has a good time playing with Buster and Buddy.