Nikita Whitlock is a Giant. But he almost wasn't even a Nikita.
His name was originally supposed to be Sergio Nehemiah Whitlock, he told Newsday on Monday, but in the delivery room at his birth his grandmother was dissatisfied with that name. She liked Nehemiah, but Sergio, she insisted, had to go.
His father was working for the Yellow Pages at the time, so that's where he turned for inspiration.
"He said 'We got one name from the Good Book, the Bible, let's get his first name from the book that pays us," Whitlock said.
He picked up the phone book, opened it to a random page, stuck his finger down, and it landed on Nikita.