Horse Names
Tips
Well, you’ve just got your new horse and it’s called Prince or King or Misty or Star, or even, “Whale” or “Boot face”. And while I am sure you all know horses with the first four names, I can assure you the last two were NOT made up, they were actual names given to acutal horses. Or your horse may have a long registered name and you want a shorter name to use around the paddock. You might even be lucky enough to have a foal that hasn’t been named yet.So, you want to give your horse a new name. Don’t worry that the horse won’t learn to respond to the new name. I can assure you, no matter how old the horse is, that if call your horse by his new name every time you see him and give him something to eat when he comes he will very quickly associate the new name with food and “coming to call”.
I like to get to know my horse for a few weeks before I give him a name, so I know the name fits. In the mean time you can just call him “Horse”, or if you have more than one horse, you can call him “Brown Horse”, or “Chestnut Horse”, “Grey Mare”, “Bay Gelding”, “The Carrotty Coloured One” etc etc. Be aware that if you take TOO long to name your horse, he will “aquire” one by himself (Like “The Hellspawn Deathbringer” - yes another actual horse, and I HAVE already mentioned Bootface and Whale, haven’t I??). A friend of mine took a bit too long to rename her horse "Special" so her fiance renamed him for her and her horse now goes by the name of Cecil , much to the vet's amusement.
Have a think about how your horses’s name will sound being yelled across the paddock/show arena/clinic. Another consideration is how easy will it be for show stewarts to spell? Will the loudspeaker annoucer hoplessly mangle the pronounciation? Do we care? When I renamed my horse Mowgli I ruthlessly corected all my friends pronounciation until they could say it properly. I am sure they got over it. Also be aware how it will get shortened. I tend to change all my horses names over time to an “ie” ending for example Lars became Larsey. I still blame the breeder of my horse Wilem for his name, I am forever going abound talking about “My Willie”. The drama queen of an Arab gelding, “Shae”, got changed to “Poofy Shae”, and “Crackle” changed to “Cwackle” after watching the telemovie “Merlin” where one of the characters had a lisp. Even Mowgli got shortened to “Mowgs”. Or you can lengthen it, “Tudor” the mad thoroughbred got changed to “The Hellspawn Deathbringer”, but I already mentioned that, didn’t I?
Be aware that if you get a horse off the track that only a few of them will have stable names, and these are usually “descriptive”. “Whale” was big, but had formerlly been known as “Willie” and I found out why when spring came along and a mare walked past. And have a guess what "Fang" and "Nipper" are good at?
Be wary of horses called “Psycho”, “Fireball”, “Spirit” etc. They normally have them for a good reason. “Fireball and Spirit were actually safe to ride, they were just a bit excitable but wouldn’t hurt you but “Psycho” was, well, psycho.
You can also team up connected names to make a show name/paddock name pair, for example Mowgli’s show name was Jungle Story because Mowgli lived in a jungle (Rudyard Kipling’s collection of stories “The Jungle Book”). I had considered giving him the show name “Kipling” but it didn’t really suit him.
Ideas for names
You might consider names from myths and legends (Osiris, Phersephone) or characters out of history (Cleopatra, Ceasar). Or you can use a place name like Seychelle (remember the Womble method of sticking a pin in an atlas?) I quite like a lot of the Celtic/Gaelic names too like Bryony and Bryn. Names of drinks are very popular like Brandy, Wiskey, Margarita, Chardonnay. Also popular are Names That Are Not Names especially with showies eg Mirage, Roulette, Sunshine, Credit, Debit, Zenith, Enterprize, Kit Kat etc. If you get stuck, just look for horse name web sites on the web, there are heaps, just do a Google search.If you are still having trouble, what about a foreign language name, you can borrow dictionaries from a library or ask someone. I think French is a lovely language, eg S’allumer which means to set afire, to light up. A lot of Friesian and Friesian crossbreds have Dutch or Frisian names but unfortunately they are difficult to pronounce if you are not familiar with the language. An e on the end of a word is pronounced a. The ending word –sje is pronounced "sha". The letter j is pronounced y and ch is pronounced k (and that's just the beginning!). Dutch and Frisian names can be found on the web at Lowchens Western European names and Horse names which includes general and Friesian horse names.
Lowchens have another list of great horse names: Lowchens horse names including links to other sites.
Have you ever been reading a book and come across a nice name in a book and thought “that would be a good name for a horse”, well, I have and I have written them down for many years, here is the list. You might recognise some of them, but if you want to know the meaning/who they are just Google them. If you would like to name your horse after a character in Lord of the Rings, you will be happy to know that J R R Tolkein has saved you lots of effort by listing every single character at the end of the book in Index II.
Names
Fillies/Mares
| Achren Adara Adelaide Adele Afrael Akane Alana Alanna Alcadie Alexandra Alia Alura Alyssa Alzena Amadea Amaris Amber Amelie Amerie Aniela Antionette Antonia Ariel Arien Artemis Arwen Asenath Athena Atlanta Aveline Ayah Azia Aziza Bathseba Beldaran Belle Bernadette Bethsheba Brekke Bronwyn Bryona Bryony Callie Cantata Carrie Catherine Ce’Nedra Celeste Celestine Ch’iel Chani Chanur Chen Chessene Chi Chloe Cho Chrysalis Claudia Cleopatra Danae Dawnlight Demeter Diana Dione Donna Dryad Eilonwy Eir Elaine Elbereth Electra Elena Elhana Elieze Ellen Elwy Engenue Eowyn Epona Epone Erin Estelle Estrellita Evelyn Evie Felice Firesprite Friday Galadriel Genevieve Gigi Guinevere GuyLian (chocolates) Gwyneth Hazel Heather Helva Heulwen Hiisi Holly Ilena Illessa Ilyena Isabeau Isabel Isadora Jessica Juliet Kara Kasumi Katala Katarina Katerine Katherina Katherine Katlinel Khalisha Killashandra Kira Kiska Kit Kat Kitiara Kylara Lana Laura Laurana Lauranna Laurie Layla Leela Leia | Leila Lena Leonora Lessa Li Lia Liana Lianari Lielani Liesl Lila Lillian Lilu Lily Linnet Liselle, nickname: Velvet Lisette Lorean Lorena Lu Lucy Lydia Lyusenka Magrat Maia Manora Mara Margarita Marisa Marna Martine Marylin Maya Maya Mayaserana Mayvar Melissa Melita Menoly Mercedes Mercy Meredith Merel Merle Mermaid Merry Mi Lady Mindy Minera Minerva Miranda Moira Moonlight Moonshine Moreta Morticia, Tish Myra Nadia Naomi Nermal Nionel Noonlight Nymph Nyssa Pearl Penelope Persphone Phoebe Podkayne Poledra Polgara Porenn Pyanfar Ramoth Rani Raphaella Rechaba Rhian Rhiannon Romana Rosaline Rosalynd Sala Salmissra Sancia Sarah Sassinak, Sassenachs, Sass Scherharazade Seychelle Sheikha Shona Sigourny Sigrid Silar Silvana Silvicola Siren Sprite Stella Susette Suzu Taiba Tamzin Tara Tarantella Te‘Hianna Tegan Teradia Teresca Terzie Tessa, Contessa Theodora Thera Tinuviel Titania Trema Tricia Trillian Tryntje Vashti Vella Velvet, nickname of Liselle Wind Singer Xena Zara Zelda Zena Zephira Zofeyah Zubrette Zucca |
Geldings, Colts, Stallions
| Abyssinian Adreic Afriel Agamembnon Agamemnon Aggedor Ahren Aiken Al’zan Aladdin Alaric Alberon Aldur Alexander Aluteyn Amadeus Amaris Ambrose Ambrosius Anaeis (a hero) Anduril Anneas Antion Anton Aodhan Aramis Archimedes Arrakis Arrowflight Arthur Artreu Astaire Atlas Augustus AWOL Ayfa Ayres Azeez Babar Bagheera Baird Baldrik Baloo Banshee Bantha Barak Baron Beaumont Bedouin Beldurian Belgarion, Garion Bellamy Benden Beresford Berit Betelgeuse Bevier, Sir Binky Black Tie Blair Blake Bonaparte Bond Bram Bran Brandy Breyn Brimstone Broderick Brodie Bronson Bryn Cailean Cair Paravel Canth Caoimhin Captain Nemo Carey Cascade Caspian Castellan Cat Celabevial Celadeyr Celebrian Chakotay Chataigne (Chestnut) Chen Chewbacca, Wookie Chinook Chretienne Ciaran Claudius Colin Conan Connor MacLeod, Highlander Creyn Creyn Crowley Cuilean Czar D’Alton Daemon Lover Daeron Damone Dante Darius Darius Jedburg Darth Vader David Delwyn Denethor Derek Dermott Desert Shower Devaberial Deverell Diarmuid Dion Dionysus Djin Don Giovanni Donatello Dr Jones Dream Weaver Drinian Dumont D’Urville Durnik Eachan Eamon, Eamonn, Aymon Edmund, Blackadder, Blacky Edric Edward Edwin Ehren Einstein Eldred Elendil Elessar Elf Elwin Emmet Emrys Enterprise Eriond Estban Etienne Excelsior F’lar F’nor Fabian Faramir Faran Feanor Fen-yeu Fido Finn Firedrake Floyd Forest Fox Galileo Gareth Geordie Geran Gerint Glen Glynn Goblin King Good Omens Greor Griffin, Grif Gwydion Harrison Hector Henry, Hal, Harry Hettar Highlander Horse Ian Icarus Igen Indiana Jones, Indy, Jonesey Indy Irish Eyes Isaac Ishmael Ista Ithica Jack Jafaar Jak James Tiberius Kirk, Captain James, Bond, Secret Agent, Spy, Martini Jared Jareth Jathcar Annurian Jesse Jiri, Yiri Jonsey Jumar Kalten Kavan Keegan Keith | Kevin Khalad Khamsin Kheldar, nickname Silk Khym Kieran Kipling Kit Kohan Kontike Koshka Kryten Kuhal Earthshaker Kurik Labyrinth Lachlan Lancelot, Lance Lanokota Lanzeki Lars Lawrence Legolas Leionard Lennon Lennox Leo Leon Leonard Leonardo Leyr Li Hsen Liam Lioth Lister Llewellyn Lloyd Llysander Loren Louis Luciano Lucien Ludo Luis Luke Lulo Luthien Lux Lyam Lysander Maas Main Strike Mal de Mer Mandorallan Marc Mark Mars Martel Mawson Max Maxim’s Medwyn Meilyr Melyngar Meneldil Mercer Mercutio Meredith Merlin Merman Merrill Michael Michelangelo Mione Mnementh Mr Mistopholes Mr Spock Mr Walker, Phantom Murdoch Nadir Nehemiah Neptune Nimannon Nimrodel Nodonn Nontusvel Nostromo Nukalavee Nye Oberon Octavian Palatine Paris Paul Peregrin (Pippin) Peregrine Persus Philippe Philippe Piers Platime Predator Puck Pukha Ra Ra Rainbow, Rein Beau Ramirez Ran Ranma Raphael Reece Remus Rhys Rincewind the Wizard Rinn Riva Roald Robinton Rohirrim Rollo Ruatha S’allumer Salah Salah, Salah al Din, Saladin Samel Sea Devil Sebell Seigfried Seth Shadowmere Sheikh Silk, nickname of Kheldar Silver Simeon Sir Didymus Skeksi Skukkukk Skyhawk Skywalker, Luke Soleil Solo Sparhawk Spitfire Sputnik Stainless Steel Rat, Jim Sven Taglieri Talen Tamlyn Taran Tarrant Telgar Terra Firma Tethys Thane The Kurgan Theodore Tiger, Tig, Tiggy, Tigger Tim Tam Time Lord, Dr Who, The Doctor Tor Triton Tsar Tullamore Tully Tumnus Turgomon Tybalt Tynian Tyrian Ulath Ulysses Umbra Valerian Velteyn Villa Vladimir Vulcan Vulcan Warf Warlock Wesley Westly Wiskey, Wolf Bane Wolf, Mr Wolf, Belgarath Wolfgang Wolfie Xander Xanthus Xavier Xenophon Xenos Xerxes Xhashie Yehudi Yeochee Zakariah Zakath, Zak Zane Zared Zenith Zenon Zephyr Zorro |
Pairs
Beast, BeautyBert, Ernie
Calvin, Hobbes
Credit, Debit
Pullox, Castor
Romulus, Remus
Zenith, Nadir
Actual horse names
These are names of horses that I actually have known. Going down the list brings back memories! Show names are listed second.
| Geldings Ace Badger Beau Brandy Budgie Butternut Caspar Chardonnay Charlie Cheeko Chevalier Copper, Copper’s Worth Crackle Credit Danny Debit Deek Diablo Diamond Cutter, Diamond Fireball Flynn Jabberwocky Jack Kanga King Lars, Lestat (..the money-sucking vampire) Mickey Mister Mowgli, Jungle Story, Kipling Ned Noddy Patrick Peppi Prince Robin S’dat Scotty, Mactavish (Scott saved his life) Shadu Snoopy Snuffy Sookey Spirit Star Teddy Tommy Tucky Whiskey Wilem Winnie, Winsome Zareeb | Mares Bubbsy Cass, Cassandra Crystal, Crystal Clear Cuddles Doc Fiesta Kaluah, Kallie Karana Kat Keet Kitty Lady Lucy Marleybone Mirage Misdemenour Moroccan Sunset Natelle Polly Puss Rhian Roulette Sarah Shanaliah Shannon Sunshine Thara
|