Badass baby names carry a cool, macho image that works for either gender. These badass names, such as Ace and Axel, suggest the person who rides a motorcycle and sings in a rock band, who can carry a hikers' pack but would never carry a briefcase. 
 
Along with Ace and Axel, other badass baby names in the US Top 1000 include Blaze, Dash, Fox, Harley, Jagger, Justice, Ryker, and Wilder. Many badass names are also impressive occupations, among them Hunter, Pilot, Ranger, and Sargent.
 
Badass names are cool names with extra attitude, and they kick butt in every sense of the term. The badass baby names for girls and boys below include the Top 50 by Nameberry rank in their extended version, followed by more unusual choices in alphabetical order.

Badass Baby Names

As memories of the outragrous actress Talullah Bankhead have faded, this hauntingly euphonious Choctaw name has re-entered the public domain. A modern hipster favorite, it's been chosen for their daughters by Philip Seymour Hoffman, Patrick Dempsey, Damian Dash, Rachel Roy and Sara Rue, trail-blazed by Demi Moore and Bruce Willis for their now grown daughter. (Trivia tidbit: Bankhead's namesake was her paternal grandmother who, in turn, was named after the Georgia town of Tallulah Falls.)
 When spelled Tallula, as rocker Simon Le Bon did for his daughter, it is also a traditional Irish name that was borne by two saints.

Tallulah

Jean Harlow (born Harlean Carpenter), the original platinum blonde bombshell, was a symbol of 1930s glamour, a factor that first Patricia Arquette and then Nicole Richie and Joel Madden probably had in mind when they gave their daughters the distinctive surname name Harlow. 
 It hit the Top 1000 for the first time in 2009, one year after the arrival of Ms. Madden. Harlow would fit right in with contemporaries Arlo and Marlow(e).

Harlow

In Greek mythology, Nyx was a powerful goddess and the embodiment of the night, but when spoken, its negative meaning can't be ignored. 

A classic in its native Scandinavia, Axel has a cool rock 'n' roll flavor in the US, thanks to Guns N' Roses' Axl Rose (born William). Axel is a popular Scandinavian form of the Biblical Absalom, who was a son of King David, and is the name of the title character of William Faulkner's Absalom, Absalom. 
 Growing in popularity, along with a lot of other names featuring the powerful letter 'x', Axel is now one of the most popular <a href="https://nameberry.com/baby-names/173/Scandinavian-Names">Scandinavian names</a>. It entered the popularity list in 1989, one year after the release of one of Guns N' Roses biggest hits. It is very popular in Scandinavia, Germany and France.
Axel was chosen by Will Ferrell for his third son, and also by Rob McElhenney and Kaitlin Olson for their boys, and it's the middle name of Tiger Woods' boy Charlie. Axel Foley was the character played by Eddie Murphy in the Beverly Hills Cop movies and, going further back, was the name of an important character in Jules Verne's Journey to the Center of the Earth. Currently, Axel Heck is the oldest son on The Middle.

Axel

This nouveau name of Keanu Reeves's character in The Matrix has not enjoyed the same burst of popularity as its female counterpart, Trinity, but it definitely sounds, well, newer. Neo Rauch is an interesting contemporary German artist.

 In the Southern African language of Tswana, it is a unisex name meaning "gift".

Hunter has been dropping a bit for the past few years but is still one of the leaders of a distinctive band of boys' names that combines macho imagery (Hunter, Austin, Harley) with a softened masculinity. Hunter was for years attached to gonzo journalist Hunter S. Thompson; Josh Holloway used it for his son.

Hunter

Lazarus is a name that looks as if it could possibly be raised from the dead, just like its biblical bearer. Look for it in the next wave of Old Testament revivals that transcend their long-bearded images, the way Noah, Moses, and Abraham have for this generation.
 In the Bible, there are two people named Lazarus, the better known being the brother of Mary and Martha of Bethany whom Jesus raised from the dead. There have been also several saints named Lazarus.
 As a surname, Lazarus is most identified with poet Emma Lazarus, whose words are displayed on the Statue of Liberty.
 Related options are the original Hebrew Eleazar, the Italian and Spanish Lazaro, and the Yiddish form Lazer/Laser, the name of the son in the film The Kids are All Right.

Lazarus

Titus, once seen as a slightly forbidding Roman, New Testament, and Shakespearean name, was brought back to contemporary life in the USA by the TV series Titus 2000, increasing in popularity along with other revived ancient names like Linus and Silas.
 Titus was the name of a Roman military commander who became Emperor. In the New Testament, Titus was a trusted companion of St. Paul, the recipient of one of his epistles; from Shakespeare the name is familiar via the central character of his tragedy Titus Andronicus, as well as appearing in Antony and Cleopatra, Coriolanus and Timon of Athens. Titus Groan is the protagonist of Mervyn Peake's Gormenghast Gothic fantasy trilogy, and Titus Welliver was a character on Deadwood.
 The painter Rembrandt had a son named Titus.

Titus

Wolf is a name with a split personality. It can be seen as one of the fierce animal names, like Fox and Bear and Puma, with a touch of the werewolf, or it can be viewed as a quieter, Wolf Blitzer kind of name, fairly common in German (where is pronounced Vulf) and Jewish families, sometimes as a short form of Wolfgang, or even Wolfram or Wolfhart.

 CNN newscaster Blitzer inherited the name from his grandfather. Other Wolfs of note include British screenwriter Wolf Mankowitz, who was instrumental in the early James Bond films, painter Wolf Kahn, and the hero of Jack London's 1904 novel The Sea-Wolf, Wolf Larsen.

 
Despite all it has going for it, Wolf is relatively rare and has never been given to more than 80 babies in a single year. But now that Kylie Jenner and Travis Scott chose it for their infant son, Wolf is primed to climb the charts.

 Spelling variations Wolfe or Woolf push it into surname territory, while nickname Wolfie definitely domesticates it.

Wolf

Bear has suddenly lumbered onto the baby name landscape.  Perhaps inspired by British adventurer Bear Grylls (born Edward Michael), first celebrity chef Jamie Oliver used it as the middle name for his boy Buddy, and more recently Alicia Silverstone called her son Bear Blu., followed by Kate Winslet's Bear Blaize. It's part of a current trend normalizing once aggressive animal names like Wolf and Fox. Bear is now Number 218 on Nameberry and in the Top 900 in England.

Bear

This hyper-rhythmic name has two evocative references. In Greek mythology, she was an island nymph, a daughter of Atlas, who delayed Odysseus from returning home. It is also a genre of West Indian music, originating in Trinidad and Tobago and largely popularized in the States by Harry Belafonte. 
 Calypso was the name of Jacques-Yves Cousteau's research ship--and would make a highly dramatic, musical choice.

Calypso

Aviation enthusiast John Travolta put this fast-paced name in the lexicon when he used it for his late son, and George Lucas followed suit. 

Jett

Scout, a character nickname from To Kill a Mockingbird (her real name was Jean Louise), became a real-life possibility when Bruce Willis and Demi Moore used it for their now grown middle daughter, followed by Tom Berenger a few years later. A unisex choice that is growing in popularity for both genders -- but given to girls about four times more often than to boys -- it was picked by skater Tai Babilonia for her son and Kerri Walsh for her daughter Scout Margery.
 It makes a virtuous, upstanding choice for a girl--a good scout. And though it hasn't made it onto any popularity lists, it's gone from slightly eccentric to mainstream.

Scout

Fox is one animal name backed by a longish tradition, and then popularized via the lead character Fox Mulder on X Files. Fox is simple, sleek, and a little bit wild, and could make an interesting middle name.
 It was reported that the TV character's first name was not a tribute to the Fox network which aired The X-Files, as often assumed; show creator Chris Carter said he had a childhood friend named Fox. Fox was one of the fastest-rising boys' names of 2016, perhaps because of the popularity of the X-Files revival.

Rory is a buoyant, spirited name for a redhead with Celtic roots. The name Rory is getting more popular overall, but for the past few years has been trending decidedly toward the boys' side -- however, it's been rising to new heights for girls in recent years. 
 It's worth noting, however, that while Rory is used a third of the time for girls in the US, in Britain it's never used as a girls' name. In London or Liverpool, naming your daughter Rory is like naming her....Roger.
 Rory (or Rori) might also be a nickname for Aurora. In the TV series Gilmore Girls, Rory was the nickname of Lorelai Leigh, the daughter character played by Alexis Biedel whose mother, played by Lauren Graham, was also named (and called) Lorelai.
 Robert Kennedy's youngest daughter, born after his assassination and now a respected documentary filmmaker, is named Rory. Actress Melora Hardin named her daughter Rory Melora.

Rory

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's middle name could make an interesting pick for music-loving parents--if only in middle place. Amadeus is the title of a Peter Shaffer play which became an award-winning film in 1984.
 German-born tennis ace Boris Becker chose Amadeus for the name of his fourth son.

Amadeus

Ryder, one of the current favorite er-ending <a href="https://nameberry.com/boys-names">boys’ names</a>, has been in the spotlight since Kate Hudson and her rocker husband Chris Robinson chose it for their son in 2004. Very popular in several provinces of Canada, Ryder was chosen by John Leguzamo for his son and adorns Boy Meets World star Ryder Strong.
 In the past, Ryder was much more prevalent as a surname, as in American Old Master painter Albert Pinkham Ryder and Brideshead Revisited protagonist Charles Ryder. Not all came by it legitimately, however--Winona Ryder was born Winona Horowitz.
Trivia note: The Ryder Cup is a biennial golf tournament with competing teams from Europe and the US.

Ryder

X marks the spot in names these days, usually at the middles or ends of names, but here is one that puts it squarely up front.
 This extravagant name, which, like many Greek names beginning with X, is pronounced as if it were a Z in English, is derived from the Greek word for the color yellow. A Homeric epithet of Demeter, Xanthe would be a striking choice for a blonde-haired baby girl, thanks to its "golden" meaning.

Xanthe

Bird name Raven, once a symbol of pride for both African-American and Wiccan parents, is finding new life as a superhero name. Raven Darkholme is the real name of Mystique, heroine of the X-Men films played by Jennifer Lawrence. And there is another Raven superheroine in Teen Titans. Some parents may still choose Raven to signal black pride or mystical powers or maybe even Edgar Allan Poe fandom, but we are guessing most inspiration is coming from the comics.

Raven

Unlike Pearl and Ruby, this is one gem name suited for boys, the final x making it sound strong and virile. Musician Iggy Azalea chose the name Onyx for her son.

Onyx

Badass baby names -- boy with mohawk and skateboard

Badass baby names including badass boy names and badass names for girls