Axel

Axel has the sound of something turning on a well-oiled spindle, a name with torque. It began as the Scandinavian form of the Hebrew Absalom, father of peace, and became a fixture across Denmark, Sweden, and Germany before arriving in the United States via the Scandinavian diaspora and, more recently, the Guns N' Roses frontman. Currently around the top 80 for American boys, it is one of the more internationally fluent choices on the charts, pronounceable in most European languages without modification. The name reads as lean and a little leather-jacketed, equally at home on a toddler with curls and on a future motorcycle enthusiast.