A friend recently informed me of a charity party being held by Tampa Bay Buccaneers defensive end Stylez G. White and it got me to thinking about his name.

I'm not sure how you rate name changes, but whatever the system Stylez G. White deserves to be near the top.

White’s name was originally Greg and he changed it to Stylez in 2008.

The change garnered very little publicity. After all, White had done nothing in his career and by NFL standards was a nobody.

But despite his lack of fame, his name change was phenomenal.

Some athletes have changed their names to their nicknames (Chad Ocho Cinco, Tiger Woods), others have done it for religious purposes (Muhammad Ali, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar).

White’s name change was inspired by a character in a movie: Rupert “Stiles” Stilinski from the movie Teen Wolf.

If you haven’t seen Teen Wolf you should. It’s an awesomely bad 80s movie about Scott Howard, a young man (played by Michael J. Fox) who begins turning into a werewolf.

This situation could have been a nightmare if not for the help of his buddy Stiles. The keg-buying, top-of-van surfing, keg buying, red-jean wearing Stiles helped make Teen Wolf the coolest guy in school.

Part of what’s so great about this name change is the irony. Here you have a 6-3, 270 lb. black man inspired to change his name by a skinny, white pipsqueak from an 80s movie.

White put his own spin on the name, changing it to Stylez rather than Stiles and also making his middle initial part of it – he goes by Stylez G. White.

Unfortunately for White the name change didn’t inspire better play – he’s still an average NFL defensive end. But his name change will forever be top-notch.