Aggressive Boy Names

A patriotic spin on Armie, with roughly the same meaning whether you consider it a variation or a totally separate word name.

Dagger is one of the new badass baby names, a sharp and scary choice that some parents may feel arm their child for battle in a cruel modern world.

Hard and shiny, Steel projects an image that's smooth, macho...and cold to the touch.

Brawny name chosen for his son by rocker Nikki Sixx of Motley Crue.

Has a slight aura of danger, from its being two types of weapons and a looming character in the Star Wars films. Best left as a nickname for Mason.

Another bad boy occupational name, joining Bandit, Rogue, and Gunner, though Vandal feels more obviously destructive. The Vandals were a tribe that swept through Europe and North Africa in the sixth century and sacked Rome. Their name is thought to spring from the Germanic word for wandering, but has come to mean senseless destruction.

A turbulent bad boy name, no matter how you spell it.

Bowman has a lot of winning ingredients: an occupational surname, a cool "Bo" sound, and an archery-related meaning. Given to around 40 boys in the US in a recent year, it could work as a rarer, but not outrageous, alternative to the likes of Bodhi, Beau, Bowen, and Brody.

Self-assured and playful, Bash is a short form of the popular Sebastian, sharing the same energy as Dash, Colt, and Nash. It could work as a quirky, rough-and-tumble alternative to the more familiar nicknames Seb or Baz, or, for those looking for something unexpected and adventurous, it could be a stand alone choice.

Axe, spelled like this, is used for a handful of baby boys in the US each year. You can see it as one of the new weapon names, along with Dagger and Beretta, or as an abbreviation of the very popular Axel.

Diesel, which you can think of as a word name for the fuel or as a German surname that derives from a pet form of Matthew or Mathias, is a new entry to the American name lexicon thanks to celebrities Jennie Finch and Casey Daigle, who chose it for their son, baby brother of Ace. Diesel might also be thought of as one of the neo-macho names, joining such bros as Harley, Ranger, and Breaker.

Gage we get. Cade we get. But Cage? Not really, and yet, it was given to about two dozen baby boys in one recent year.

Striker is one of the new gang of boys' names that have two syllables, end in -er, spring from words, and have a macho, even aggressive meaning and image. Other examples include Breaker, Heller, and Wilder. Do the world a favor and desist.

This aggressive baby boy name has been sitting at the bottom of the charts since 2008.

Asking for trouble. Rebel Wilson is female, but this name is truly gender neutral, though hardly neutral in any other way. Rebel is undoubtedly one of the edgiest boys' names starting with the letter R.

Not a great idea to associate your newborn with drug lords.

Raider is one of the new genre of badass word names, which also includes Rogue, Rebel, Danger, Wilder, and so on. Choose it at your own peril.

This upbeat, friendly surname name has appeared on television's Battlestar Galactica a handful of cartoons, and on a literary note, a character in Herman Melville's Moby Dick. Sports fans might think of Boomer Esiason, the NFL quarterback turned color commentator. He's not the only athlete to answer to the upbeat nickname.

Ripper can be used to describe having a mighty good time or something of particularly good quality, however the infamous Jack the Ripper connection does rather overpower that. While Ripper did make the US stats for the first time in 2024 when it was given to five boys, we'd recommend the similar sounding Ripley, Pip, Zippy, Tripp, or Skipper over Ripley. Or perhaps something with a similar feeling meaning: Lance, Marvel, Blaze.

Chance has risen far on the baby-naming charts, but Hazard has a considerably more dangerous edge. It was the middle name of famed US naval commander Oliver Hazard Perry.