change of name?

The first horse i bought was nameless and she had four long white socks so she was Pippi Longstockings - shortened everyday to Pip or P.

My mums mare came to a yard i worked on to be broken, when they dropped her off they told us she was called Mary or Betty but they couldn't remember which one she was, so we initially called her Betty, then some one added May to the end so she became Betty May (which i really disliked) - she went back to her owner who i'm pretty sure kept the name going. Mum then bought her several months later and hated the name so shortened it to May, spelt Maii (welsh) and when we acctually got her passport her name was Megan! She's still Maii!

Current horse was called Rogue by the girl who had her temporarily before me, prior to that she had no name (passport unknown 2011) i really disliked the name, didn't suit her at all as she wasn't Rouge'ish in the slightest and such a lovely girl, very sweet and willing - we called her Ruby on the way home from the viewing and it stuck from there - she really is a Ruby!

ETA on the theme of human names one yard i worked on had a Colin/ Kevin and a Clive at the same time, all from different owners too - just a coincidence. I'm also looking at a rescue dog currently called Irene, that would have t obe changed as all i could thing every time i called her for a walk or something, would be the song 'Come on Eileen'!
 
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I'm a little superstitious on the name changing front. It would have to be horrific for me to consider changing it. Sion is 'okay' I'm sure you would get used to it.
I couldn't look the ex owner/breeder in the eye if Id renamed their horse, but then I'm a bit soft like that.

A good friend of mine loaned out her homebred 17yo horse. He had a normal name. The loaners had the gall to change it and refer to his 'new' name to my friends face. We were both a bit OMG about it!!
 
Jenni_ said:
I love human names on horses!!

I'd like a black horse to call Bruce after Bruce Wayne.....

I like Steve for a horse too.
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Me too, but they have to be the right human names. Andy was just way too normal. I have too many friends named Andy. I like old fashioned human names - the sort that don't get used any more, although as soon as I choose one it seems to become popular straight away. When I changed Andy's name to Archie there were very few Archie little boys around, now there are loads. It was the same with my dog, Mabel.

The names I like at the moment are Malcolm, Vera and Madge
 
Change it, I've changed horse's names before and never had a problem. It all depend on how superstitious you are really.
 
ihatework said:
I'm a little superstitious on the name changing front. It would have to be horrific for me to consider changing it. Sion is 'okay' I'm sure you would get used to it.
I couldn't look the ex owner/breeder in the eye if Id renamed their horse, but then I'm a bit soft like that.

A good friend of mine loaned out her homebred 17yo horse. He had a normal name. The loaners had the gall to change it and refer to his 'new' name to my friends face. We were both a bit OMG about it!!
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Wow changing a loan horses name is a bit :O

agree on the name front if its an OK name i'd probably suck it up, Ruby had only been 'Rouge' for number of weeks and she was a buy to sell deal for the previous owner so they wern't too bothered/ attached i dont think. If it were a long standing name of a beloved horse i dont think i could/ would change it.
 
My old mare was Andee (yes go figure!) anyway I didn't particularly like the name but had no better ones so just stuck with that. The constant correction of no she's a mare was always amusing.
I had a pony who came with the name Robin which I really didn't like to changed his to Loxley which really suited him. (went with the Robin Hood theme :) )
Latest boy came with the name Harry which again just didn't suit as seems a really plain name and I know too many human Harrys plus he's just so flash. The OH came up with his new name Harn which I love. He's actually named after Han Solo out of Star Wars as the new film had just come out. Just added the 'r' in so it would get pronounced right. Suits him perfectly although did have to explain the name change to his breeder who spotted the change on a facebook post!
Comedy names I like are Dwayne and Pudding
 
annagain said:
What about Sioni (rhymes with Jonny), a more colloquial version of Sion? Like a Charlie rather than Charles?

Do you want to keep the Welsh? I quite like Siencyn (pronounced Shen-kin) and it's close enough that he might answer to it. There's an old Welsh nursery rhyme about Sion and Sian and Siencyn going to Aberdare, where Sion buys a cockerel and Sian a hen. Not sure what Siencyn did!
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I dn't mind the welsh, I'm keeping his registered name Sion Twm Haf as its named after Sion Twm Catti, and theres a local connection there (I'm not far from Tregaron). I do call him Sioni at the minute but I'm still not keen. it's better than the Sion though haha
 
I think if you keep one element, it's not really changing it enough to rain bad luck down on yourself! I have one horse who was given a stable name that was something just made up for the passport (bought unbroken from a dealer) but was listed on the passport together with his full show name. I hated the stable name but the full registered name was quite nice so I changed the stable name and kept the full registered name. Horse totally recognises his 'new' stable name. I also have a pretty ID mare who was passported as Bojangles, which really didn't suit her and isn't a female name! So I call her Bo for everyday and added a nice show name. Therefore have kept elements of both.

I think male human names are most odd on horses - I have known a Roger and an Erik!
 
Ive changed names before and not had much luck, but I dont think it was related :D :p It all depends on what sticks!

We have 1 pony here called Perfection - needless to say we call her something else but what stuck was... Pea! Wouldnt have been my choice either haha. My black mare is called Briea which I wasnt that keen on, so I called her Bree... but everyone who had known her kept referring to her as Briea and 6 months on, it’s Briea, it’s just stuck.
My Highland had no stable name as such, she was a youngster when we bought her off the hill called Erray Burdock.. I didnt fancy shouting “Burdock” so we called her Brook. That stuck and was easier i suppose as she had no history.
 
Camilla's Aunty Em said:
My pony is called Dave!
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I would LOVE to have a horse called Dave, or Brian! I changed my coloured from Oscar to Oshk, my sister at the time has a lisp and it was funny - I had him seven years and it caused me no bad luck. I think human names for horses are funny, I would much rather have a Nigel or a Dave than a Magic or a Blaze - bleugh!
 
LeannePip said:
I'm not hugely familiar with Welsh , how do you pronounce sion and sioni
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Siôn (technically it should have the accent, although most people don't bother) is just like Sean or Shaun, just the Welsh spelling. Sioni (note the lack of accent which changes the way the o is pronounced) is like Jonny with a "Sh" at the start.

Welsh is actually far easier to pronounce than you'd think and it's pretty easy to read as, unlike English, the way you pronounce letters never changes. If you always think of the way a child would learn the letter (a as in apple) rather than reading it as you would English and pronounce every letter (so an r at the end you really say it) you won't go far wrong. Then it's just a case of learning what sounds certain combinations produce e.g "ae" "au"or "ai" is always pronounced like eye (a native speaker would do each of them slightly differently but that would be fine for a non-native speaker) "dd" is like the "th" in the or that and "th" is like the "th" in think or thatch(see how it's simpler, we differentiate between the soft and hard "th" whereas in English you're expected to know which is which for no good reason!) a single "f" is a "v" (much like it is in "of") and a double "ff" is an "f" (much like in "off").

So Dafydd (I get really annoyed when people don't pronounce it properly as it's easy) would be Daf- rhyming with "have" and -ydd rhyming with "with". Geraint is the other one that gets me (especially with the Olympics and Geraint Thomas in the cycling getting called Grant, Grint, Grind and all sorts, its just rude not to learn to pronounce someone's name properly if saying it a lot is part of your job) It's easy if you make bit of an effort - the first bit rhymes with "Pair" the second with "Pint". Just imagine him with a pint in each hand!

Sorry off on a bit of a rant there!
 
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It's an unwritten rule that all the horses have human names at our yard! All but two do. One of mine is called Gary and i love it!
 
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Becca2403 said:
I dn't mind the welsh, I'm keeping his registered name Sion Twm Haf as its named after Sion Twm Catti, and theres a local connection there (I'm not far from Tregaron). I do call him Sioni at the minute but I'm still not keen. it's better than the Sion though haha
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What about using the other bit of his name and calling him Twm then? Or is that as bad as Sion? Or there's Sioni Winwns (colloquial name for a French onion seller) so you could call him Onion :D
 
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Knew a cracking little hunting mare called Shirley, owners attempted to change her name but it didn't really stick for those that already knew her, so many people were under the impression that they had two of these paragons :D
 
I've had a bunch of ponies that came with human names, I have a Ron at the moment. The only one I changed and gave a different stable name to was called Fanny and I didn't want to be calling that especially as my other pony at the time was a Dick (in more ways than one :D )
 
smja said:
Knew a cracking little hunting mare called Shirley, owners attempted to change her name but it didn't really stick for those that already knew her, so many people were under the impression that they had two of these paragons :D
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The best hunting mare I ever had was called Bertha, you couldn't imagine her as anything else!
 
I have a Kevin.....seriously......its part of his " proper name ". Had him since a 2 years old and he is 16 now and he gets called Boo,Boops, Booington,Booping...you get the picture...But you stand in his field and yell any of these names all day long and he will ignore you. Yell " Kev" once and he is with you instantly....Bless him....hes a stunner but strangely Kev suits him....
 
I had a horse called Brian whom I sold to a friend but.... His registered name is "Van de Helven Van de Schiechenhoff V"... yep, think they exhausted themselves with his wordy registered name so they gave up and called him Brian. He was however a 18hh massive grey warmblood with the biggest ears you would have ever seen and was not the brightest of sparks bless so Brian suited him.

My previous horse was called Ed and his registered name was " Edwardo Delgado Azure" so the Ed part made perfect sense!

My youngster at the moment was called Mermaid... I could not bring myself to shout MERMAID in the field or "good girl mermaid" so I changed it to Millie. Never had any issues and I am naturally superstitious saluting magpies!
 
I like human names for animals so wouldn't have a problem with Sion. We name all our animals with human names. Our dogs have old people's names such as Mavis, Bob, Edna etc (not these actual ones, but you get my drift). I actually don't like typical animal names such as Spot, Fluffy, Star etc. because I think it makes them sound less important. However, that being said, I have no qualms about changing animal's names if I don't like them. I changed both of my last two horses' names (from horsey names to human names, lol).
 
I love human names on horses! I used to ride a Danny, my current is Mollie, my friend has had Sammy, my riding instructor had a Simon and through pony club etc I've met Eric, Lily, Alice, etc
 
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