UK/USA Pony Names

[Tracks]

How many ponies have different names depending on where they are sold?  I thought a thread might prove a handy reference

These are the ones I've come across

UK name first then USA Name

Tracks/Steamer

Tug/Salty

Trucker/4 Speed

1st Base/Slugger

Lollipop/Sweet Tooth

[Carrehz]

Hmmm, dunno about anything past US/UK differences, but here's a few of those off the top of my head..

(UK name then US name)
Strawberry Fair/Sugarberry
Wavebreaker/Wavedancer
Sweetie/Sweet Stuff
all of the Princess Ponies had gem names in the UK.. lessee.. Tiffany's UK name is "Princess Pearl", I know that.. I'll have to look up the others..
Princess Ruby/Primrose
Princess Serena/Aquamarine
Princess Sparkle/Amethyst
Princess Starburst/Amber
Princess Royal Blue/Sapphire

For the other gens...

G4 Cupcake was released as "Cupcake" and "Sugarcup", I'm not entirely sure if that's a case of her having a name change for the UK or if she was released with both names everywhere, if that makes sense. (I wasn't collecting G4 then so idk, I never saw her in shops myself) G4 blindbag Apple Bottoms was renamed Apple Split here (I think he was re-released in the US with that name too).

Not sure if G2/G3 had any name changes between the UK and the US?

That's all I can think of off the top of my head, I'm probably forgetting a bunch tho

[Tracks]

Oooh thanks - I didn't know Wave Breaker and Wave Dancer was the same pony! 

[Taffeta]

There are a lot. I'm going to plug my website shamelessly now, but the Scrapbook uses all the correct UK release names for every pony that has a different name in the UK as well as listing the US equivalent where necessary. It's a really rich and key part of UK pony history and it's what we grew up with, so I think it's super important and gets overlooked far too much.

So here are just a few off the top of my head, from memory.

Magic Message
Cuddles/Teddi
Windy/Magical Breeze

Rainbow Curl ponies here are Rainbow Magic, Rainbow Storyteller, Rainbow Rider and Rainbow Cloud.

Pocket Friends Ponies are Singing Pocket, Jingle Pocket, Wriggle Pocket and Hopping Pocket

Secret Surprise Ponies are Spangling Secret, Sparkling Secret, Shining Secret and Shimmering Secret

In the UK Tropical pony set, the unicorn is called Sail Away and the earth pony with palm trees is Hula Hula, which makes a ton more sense. The yellow pony is Summer Heatwave and the pegasus is Surfing Days.

Candy Cane: Gingerbread and Molasses, both names were around here because we had some US imports but the comic always used Gingerbread.

Glittering SHS - Moonshimmer instead of Twinkler.

Twinkle Eyed Ponies - Sweetie, not Sweet Stuff.

Strawberry Fair isn't the only Party Pony (TAF) either - Lollipop, not Sweet Tooth 

Adventure Boy Ponies/Big Brothers: Tracks, First Base, Trucker and Tug, not Steamer, Slugger, 4Speed and Salty.

Baby Drink & Wet - Rainflower and Wellyboot, not Cuddles and Snookums.

Newborn Twins - Tickles and Giggles, not Jabber and Jebber. Fleecy and Fluffy, not Speckles and Bunkie. Tuggles and Toddles, not Sticky and Sniffles.

I am sure there are a whole ton more but that's just a few off the top of my head.

It makes me sad that UK people don't use UK names more. It's a part of our pony heritage, but it's in real danger of being lost because of the trend to default to the US names. I'm sure there's a place for both, but apparently not. I think it's sad so many UK people aren't aware of some of these. The US line has some nice names as well, but it also has some repetition that the UK line doesn't have (Gingerbread/Molasses above is the only example of a UK name being a duplicate). And, honestly, if you grow up with ponies being called Strawberry Fair and Lollipop, why would you change to Sugarberry and Sweet Tooth as an adult? It just doesn't make sense to me. We need more UK name use, if only to reinforce the fact a lot of ponies people call "US" ponies are actually global and have a whole other identity, life and presence in another place.

(There's a similar argument here for some of the European language names as well, but I can't really comment on those, I can only comment on English language names)

G2 Sundance was also Sunsparkle over here. I think she's the only one, though.

[Al-1701]

I've s liked the UK names more than the US for the most part.  Sweetie sounds cuter and more fitting than Sweet Stuff (though my idea is "Sweetie" is her nickname).  I like just everything about the UK Princesses over the US princess.  First Base, Tracks, Trucker, and Tug sound better than Slugger, Steamer, 4Speed, and Salty (though, I' still not too keen on the Big Brothers as a concept).  Strawberry Fair and Lollipop sound better than Sugarberry and Sweet Tooth.

Really, the people at Hasbro UK seemed to thinking a little more about the aesthetics of saying and hearing the names than their American counterparts.

[Tracks]

There are a lot. I'm going to plug my website shamelessly now,

It makes me sad that UK people don't use UK names more.

I will bookmark your website thank you for that

I agree totally about the UK names - the ponies I have who have two names are always called by their UK names (My favourite boy Tracks being an example of that)

[Taffeta]

I think part of it might have been because it was easier for the UK to licence names for use within  a limited space and less easy for Hasbro in the US to always do that.

I forgot possibly the most contentious of the renamed sets, the Sundae Best. I say c ontentious because of their name swapping on comics and inserts and the fact that the US originally were going to use the name Cherry Berry but switched, meaning the UK actually has the true original name for that pony, and the US doesn't. Unfortunately because of the name/image changes/mixups, it;s unclear whether Hasbro US intended to use Cherry Berry for the pony they eventually named Sherbet (as shown on the carded image in their promotional material) or whether they were going to use it for the pony we use it for, who they later called Crunch Berry. I also find it interesting that it's Cherry Berry that's the name that survived into G4, not Crunch Berry. It suggests that's the name that was in Hasbro's files, not the one Hasbro US ended up using.

Because there's proof that this UK name was the original name for a pony in this set even in the US and later got changed, I wonder how many other UK names were originally in the US line but got changed because of licencing issues. There are some names where you can tell they've been changed for cultural reasons, but that doesn't apply to many or even most. There are also several culturally American names that survived into the UK, such as Tic Tac Toe, Cotton Candy, Quarterback to name but three. If cultural renaming was a general priority, Tic Tac Toe would've been Noughts & Crosses, and Cotton Candy would've been Candyfloss. As that didn't happen, I think cultural naming was not a major concern with most of these name changes.

The Cherry Berry mystery makes me think that licencing rights play a part in it, and actually the original real names for some of these ponies only survive in the UK.

But I may be biased. It's worth noting the name print on the Sundae Best cards in the US release is weird and inconsistent, some being in capitals and some not. Something weird happened with that set, for sure.

I have no issue with US pony names, except the repetition, nor their wide use online. It makes sense to know them. But I think that it's up to the people in the Uk to make sure their own pony history is preserved. There's nobody else to do it, and an overreliance on American pony information means that it's getting lost.  It;s not just the UK, but Europe, Australasia etc too. There's a lot more that needs to be known, discussed and out there in places other than the notes section of the Wiki and my website, but it generally gets overlooked in favour of Nirvana variant discussion these days.

I just think that's sad. I think that there's a risk that there are things we don't know now that we may never know because our chance to know it has been lost already. I'm a historian in my real life, so the idea of losing UK pony history - so much a part of so many of our childhoods - really breaks my heart.

I really want a time when "international" refers to ponies sold globally, which is what international means, as opposed to a "Not-in-the-US" meaning. I think that a lot of the errors that persist about ponies, variations, and sale locations would be corrected if people's attitudes shifted to a more global view of MLP, and we'd understand far better what was and wasn't exclusive where. There are far too many people who post that they didn't know something that's been available knowledge for more than 15 years, simply because the model for ID sites has been centred only on the US line, and not on the global picture.

But this is a soapbox issue for me I can't change the whole of pony collecting. So I put it all on the Scrapbook. But the fact that a lot of people still don't know things that have been on the Scrapbook site for the last ten years kind of proves that we need to widen our awareness of a lot of stuff. And the UK is just a tiny corner of it. Basically, the US collectors have more than done their job in getting their pony heritage out there. It's up to the rest of us to get ours out there too, so we all have a balanced picture.

[Al-1701]

Well, as a G1 fan writer, I tend to use the UK names for ponies.  I even really like some of the UK/Europe exclusive ponies like the Mountain Boys (even if I do make them unicorns in my continuity).

[MJNSEIFER]

Sweetie sounds cuter and more fitting than Sweet Stuff (though my idea is "Sweetie" is her nickname). 

This thread is actually the first time I'd heard that Sweet Stuff was called "Sweetie" in the UK, and coincidently enough I actually thought to myself "Well, if I ever use Sweet Stuff for my fanseries, I could have "Sweetie" be her nickname." before reading your post.

I myself tend to know the US names more, because I started with the cartoons, as an adult, whereas if I had started with the toys as a kid, and knew their names, then things may have been different.  Like with the whole brony names vs. Hasbro names thing, though I will simply decide which ones I like better if I choose to use any of them or I will use both names somehow as a compromise (though my friend/writing partner will obviously be given a say in the matter).

I am actually leaning towards the UK names for at least most of the Big Brother ponies at this precise moment in time, but the good thing is when writing, you are allowed to compromise, if you can think of a way to do so (and making one of the names a nickname, or something similar like a stage name*, is the easiest way to do so).

*My friend/writing partner and I both view the name DJ Pon3 in G4 as a stage name.

[Chrissytree]

I love the UK names because I grew up with them.
There's also Blackberry Pie for Boysenberry Pie but I think the rest of you have got pretty much all of them

I like to use both names when I can and in my accessory file (link in siggy) I've got two versions - one with the US names first and the other so you can sort by the UK ones. I've emailed it to a few people over the years. Also on the sticker gallery I make sure to give name variations. I just think it's a nice thing to do.

[Taffeta]

Fanfiction is creative licence. I think in that sphere all bets are off, as you have to think of what name fits the character you want to develop and the reasons for it.

 Sweetie's UK name is almost certainly on the Wiki and has definitely been out there for a long time. But I understand how someone wouldn't know it, because it underscores my point that people generally get trapped in the US interpretation of the MLP line. Most ID sites tie themselves to the Dream Valley system of 'years' and the US framework as the core of the line. That only works if you are ONLY interested in talking about what was sold in the US. As soon as you try and add other countries, you end up with a distorted image of how ponies were sold, where, and how. Sadly even most new ID sites are still trapped in the old and unsatisfactory framework. It was invented 20 years ago in a completely different online climate, but very few ID sites try and move away from it.

Alternate names indicate potential alternate ways a pony was presented and characterised in a different culture. For some ponies that's quite dramatic. Princess Ponies spring to mind.

I think there's actually more UK pony lore story-wise too than there is in the US line. The ponies here had individual stories for longer than the US release, and the pony backcard stories and ideas regarding them were expanded into almost ten years of pony comic stories. By contrast, there are only a few who get focused on in the US animation.

The sad thing is that the US early card stories are far more detailed than the UK ones . But there's very little for them to expand into once the animation stops in 1987. The UK made up the deficit by having the comic.

Anyhow, for fans of Sweetie from her UK backcard

visitors can't see pics , please register or login


@Chrissytree  - Blackberry Pie! I totally forgot about her. I knew there were others. I'm sure there are still yet others too...

[Haruna]

Really, the people at Hasbro UK seemed to thinking a little more about the aesthetics of saying and hearing the names than their American counterparts.

Yes, I've often thought this, too. As an American I'll always have a nostalgic love the US pony names, goofy as some of them are, but a lot of the UK names are better (most of the princess ponies, for sure).

Most ID sites tie themselves to the Dream Valley system of 'years' and the US framework as the core of the line. That only works if you are ONLY interested in talking about what was sold in the US. As soon as you try and add other countries, you end up with a distorted image of how ponies were sold, where, and how. Sadly even most new ID sites are still trapped in the old and unsatisfactory framework. It was invented 20 years ago in a completely different online climate, but very few ID sites try and move away from it.

It's funny -- having grown up (literally) using Dream Valley and having memorized ponies in that way, that's how my mind works now -- I see ponies in sets and remember which ones were in the US's Year 1, 2, etc. Sometimes I laugh at myself because at this point it's almost like reciting my multiplication tables or counting sheep. But ever since I've come back to collecting (around 2013) and have seen how things have changed so much compared to the late 90s and early 2000s and how globally connected, for lack of a better phrase, the pony collecting community is now, I've wanted to learn more about which ponies were released where and what variants exist. Very little (maybe nothing) was known, for instance, about Greek ponies when I first started collecting, and I know next to nothing about them. And South African and Indian ponies are something I only heard of when I came back online, too. My Little Wiki is my go-to for info on those, but as awesome as that site is, I'd love to see a hybrid between it and Dream Valley, where every pony ever made was laid out in a timeline, with the usual information and facts about their release and where.

I think there's actually more UK pony lore story-wise too than there is in the US line. The ponies here had individual stories for longer than the US release, and the pony backcard stories and ideas regarding them were expanded into almost ten years of pony comic stories. By contrast, there are only a few who get focused on in the US animation.

I like the UK lore -- what I know of it, anyway -- quite a bit and would be sad to see that and UK pony culture disappear.