When horses and ponies had proper 'horsey' names....

I've never had a horse with a human name, instead mine have all had names other people have told me are strange... I've had a Smurf (g), a Twirl (g) and currently have Chilli (m)! We've just taken on a little pony livery called Bridget and I must admit although a human name it suits her down to the ground.
 
I much prefer non-human names for horses and dogs, most animals really - although it does depend on what that name is of course... (I had two gerbils when I was growing up and I named them Kilowatt and Sputnik....!)

My DP prefers human names, so we called our dog Rufus - 3 out of our 5 horses & ponies have had human names because they came to us that way, but the two that came with no names got great (IMO) non-human names!
 
Never thought of it but youre right! I did think of other non human names but ended up calling my currently boy Finnegan. I do have a Tinky though, and previously had a Kizzy, Monty and Tia, but I didn't name them!
 
I dont like human names for animals but funnily enough I now find kids named after the dogs amber and willow being two of them they were always doggie names the ponies also have names from nature but i have kept them Glen Hazel, mountain ash and jingo
 
I'm with those who prefer non-human names. Back in the day, my share pony was the only one on the yard who had a human name - Peter - compared to Angel, Cressy, Bramble, Yapyun, Sooty, etc.

Both my recent share horses have had human names, but this time round the horses on the yard have been Millie, Gemma, Cleo, Chloe, Ted, etc.

My cats have been Lister, Koshka, Chester and Poppy (named for the flower and I only later twigged it's also a human name).

And my hamster was Zaphod Beeblebrox McHamsterpants IV of Upper Bavaria and Lower Walloon.
 
My horse is called Ethel 😂 very human. I like human names for animals. I have 4 hamsters, my Syrian is called Simone (was Simon until I discovered he was a she) my two Russian dwarves are Sergei and Syn (Synyster Gates is his full name) and the Roborovski is called Brian. Sadly Brian's sister Sheila passed away this morning so she is now running free with sister Stella, mum Steve (another case of thought she was a he) and dad Gerald.

My cats at home are called Shaun and Bunyip (not a human name but odd all the same!)

My boyfriend named his guinea pigs Amber and DeeDee, he likes to give pets animal names whereas I much prefer human names :)
 
A name is a name is an name ... It's just a word.

Surely it's the connotation you have with that word which colours your reaction to it. After all, it's only a collection of letters ...

For instance, it seems to me that many late teens (human) at the moment have names I associate with elderly relatives, born at the beginning of the last century: Pearl, Ethel, Edith, Maeve, Daisy. It makes me laugh inside every time I meet one! BUT that's MY perception, not theirs or their mothers'.

And when you have humans naming their kids things like Apple and Buddy Bear, where do you draw the distinguishing line?!
 
I have a Pippin (Pip) and Cheerios. Retired at grass we have Ginga and Ajay. I sold Prince last year. I've had a Candy and a Blossom. Plenty of pony names here!
 
I do have a soft spot for ones that are named after food! Such as Kitkat, Whispa, Munchie, Smartie, Bounty. If I had a kids pony that was black or dark bay with white socks I would call him/her Oreo.
 
I have a Murphy and we've had Ruby, Blueberry, Pepsi, Ginny, Candy and Darius in the past, my dogs are Holly and Hector. I do like human names for animals though, all my horses were already named before I got them, but the dogs were my choice.
 
I prefer non-human, but now realise I have used some human names too. Spot the Risk was our home-bred, stable name Ellie, and we named another one Leo. We've also had loads which were pre-named - Echo, Finley, Spot, Patch, Fay, Peter, Risky, Harley (Harlequin), Domino, Rio, Zachery.

My boy Tinner is pass ported as Cornishway Cowboy, I came up with Tinner as in tin mining, a nod to his Cornish roots. He knows his name and will respond to it, which I like.
 
I have a Bailey and a Herbie which I suppose could be both old school and new school... As we now have little girls and boys called Bailey!
I have to say I think the name all depends on the horses look.. Bailey was potentially a Simba but he doesn't look like one :)
 
I currently have a Bisto and a Pickles, I have a trainer who calls Bisto, Bovril from time to time and my very elderly MIL with rather poor hearing calls Pickles, Biggles. they don't seem to mind in the least and on occasions get called something far worse by me.
 
I have a Nero and Apollo. So somewhere in between human names and not I guess :p ( and a wee smidge matchy ;))

We have about 50/50 pony names vs human names on our yard.
 
I'm not fond of human names for horses. To be honest it was a bit of shock, coming back after an 18 year hiatus to find how much of a trend it had become. I even ended up buying one - at least, his stable name was human. He was the first human-named horse I had ever owned, and I worked out we had been through at least 30 from when I was a dot to now. It took precisely 3 days for him to acquire another nickname - and not a human one. My little girl has a human name on her passport, she is Villa Laura. However, to me she is just Jams. Or JimJams.
 
I remember back in the day when I had horses called names like Pinto, Gem, Woody, a Farouse and even Dubonet!
Now we have Grace, Jack and recently sold Daisy! The cats are Winnie and Ronnie, too!
I quite like human names for animals, but do miss some of the old fashioned ones, too.
 
Mrs B said:
A name is a name is an name ... It's just a word.

Surely it's the connotation you have with that word which colours your reaction to it. After all, it's only a collection of letters ...

For instance, it seems to me that many late teens (human) at the moment have names I associate with elderly relatives, born at the beginning of the last century: Pearl, Ethel, Edith, Maeve, Daisy. It makes me laugh inside every time I meet one! BUT that's MY perception, not theirs or their mothers'.

And when you have humans naming their kids things like Apple and Buddy Bear, where do you draw the distinguishing line?!
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*This!* At School we have pupils called Angel, Summer, and Ebony, along with "old" "human" names including Elsie, Grace, Jake and Gerry (who amusingly follows Ben in the register).
My pony came with his name, (no children I know share it, but my FIL does!) he's David. I wouldn't have chosen it, but my childhood imaginary pony names would possibly be worse - though no offence intended to any equine Tango or Cinzano... :D
FWIW My adopted son has an unusual name (seemed strange for a baby!), but the same as a maternal uncle.
Anything goes!
 
I have been looking at some old pedigrees on allbreed and some of the names on there are quite amusing (Cream Cheeks and Spanker spring to mind), there are plenty of human names too (eg Roxana, foaled 1718) but some horses really got dud names (eg Old Morocco Mare, I really hope that she had a nicer stable name). So I think anything seems to go when it comes to horse names and it has been that way for a long time.

FWIW, I think that some human names suit animals very well, it really just depends on the name and the characteristics of that particular horse. I used to know a little pony called Norman and he really suited it to a T.
 
But how do you draw the line between a typical horse name or a human name? We have a horse on our yard with a "typical horse name" mentioned in previous posts and used in one of the black beauty books, but another livery has a granddaughter by the same name......... so are humans appropriating pet names too?
 
Kat said:
But how do you draw the line between a typical horse name or a human name? We have a horse on our yard with a "typical horse name" mentioned in previous posts and used in one of the black beauty books, but another livery has a granddaughter by the same name......... so are humans appropriating pet names too?
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I really hope the granddaughter is called Merrylegs.
 
Faracat said:
I have been looking at some old pedigrees on allbreed and some of the names on there are quite amusing (Cream Cheeks and Spanker spring to mind), there are plenty of human names too (eg Roxana, foaled 1718) but some horses really got dud names (eg Old Morocco Mare, I really hope that she had a nicer stable name). So I think anything seems to go when it comes to horse names and it has been that way for a long time.
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Love it! I used to have great fun looking at the pedigrees of my Tbs wondering how some of their ancestors came to have such great names!

Pippity said:
I really hope the granddaughter is called Merrylegs.
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Me too!
 
Faracat said:
some horses really got dud names (eg Old Morocco Mare, I really hope that she had a nicer stable name).

FW
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I always think that means they are a bit vague about breeding "was the granddam so and so's mare that he imported from morocco?"

I fall in the older category and some human names have always been popular for horse, most yards had a Billy, Bobby, Tommy or Jack plus a Molly and a Meg but it jars when someone uses a human name not usually used - I've met Steve, Kevin, Brenda and Rupert.

One of mine is a Frankie - he's really Saint Francois and didn't have a stable name when I got him
 
LeneHorse said:
I will admit to being of a certain age but I remember back in the day horses and ponies hardly ever had 'human' names. We had a Pixie, a Punch and a Taffy when we were kids, and in our local area there were Sinbad, Brandy, Oberon, Cola, Star, Misty, Brandy and various others. And all the pony books we read had horses and ponies with lovely names like Sirius or Moonlight. Now everything at our yard, including my own, seems to have a human boys or girls name.
I'm not saying this is a bad thing - you would feel a bit daft going down the field and shouting for 'Sirius'. Just wondered if anyone else has noticed this trend.
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I've owned a Sinbad and a Punch. My first pony was Gypsy, she was 16 in 1973 so must have been named in the 1950s.
 
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