Naming children after ponies? (Especially sons?)

[Taffeta]

On a slightly divergent note, I had a student when I was working at the college whose name was Alethea and she was known as Leafy. I thought that was pretty cute. And it is on topic (albeit a calf, not a pony).

Having lived the whole of my life with a name that is kind of normal but spelt in a unique way (Dad found it on a will >.>) and technically pronounced differently from the normal way, I sort of see what LM is getting at. I have serious disassociation with my name at times because of constantly having to correct either someone's spelling of it or their pronunciation. In fact, I gave up on the pronunciation years ago and now I just get the regular pronunciation as it's just too much bother. Fortunately it also has an abbreviated form that can't be easily misspelt and which is what my family and most friends call me - but with my academia, my full name is used more and more and obviously for official documents I have to use my full name as well. I wouldn't change it - it's my name, and it's the name my parents gave me - but I do understand the problems of having an atypical name.

My name isn't a pony name but I think choosing a name for a kid that's practical and isn't going to cause the kid hassle or to be singled out in any way. I think obviously names like Lily are fine - I know Honeysuckle can be used as a name too, but that's a bit long and icky imo - but just because you can name a kid something doesn't mean you necessarily should. I think human kids should generally have human names that are not too common but not so exotic that they cause problems for the child.

And especially for boys. Girls can get away with a lot of names, and have slowly taken over previously masculine names over time (such as Courtney, Evelyn, Taylor etc which originally were usually guy's names). I think you'd have to be really careful before giving any kid a pony name that isn't otherwise recogniseable as a person name, but especially to give one to a guy.

Lily is pretty though It's not overly common, easy to spell and difficult to mispronounce, so it's actually a really good choice. And I think Eve is probably the same, though I imagine Ember will have the same issues I do with spelling and be called Amber a lot of her life...it's still quite easy to pronounce.

[Skeen]

The closest I'd go is to name a pet after a pony, which is how I got Ember Lily the cat. 

[Mami Tomoe]

autumn like autumn skye
Wysteria
luna
amber
crystal
pearl
blossom
penny
april
may
june
august
heather
marigold
belle
silver
any flower basicly
grace
ivy
serena
tiffany
any gemstone
bonnie
misty
dawn
dot
liz
and you can nick name them

[Stormness_1]

My friend has a daughter called Ivy for the pony, and Briar for the original Sleeping Beauty. They're none the wiser, they're perfectly acceptable names otherwise. She let dad pick her son's name (subject to approval of course!) and they have Reeve. No inspiration to that one other than liking it I believe.

[KottonKandy]

Not that I ever intend on having children, but I don't think I could really live with myself if I named a person after a toy. It would feel like an all-encompassing obsession rather than just a hobby at that point and I'd be inflicting that obsession on a tiny individual who has no say in the matter but has to be the one to live with that name for their entire lives. It just seems wrong, and almost disrespectful, in a lot of ways...
But different strokes for different folks! Kiddo could always legally change their name later in life if they wanted!

[Goanna]

I guess Macintosh/Mac from G4 might be a more "normal" sounding boy's name?
And I think actually G4's Soarin' was named after a staff member's kid

[Zapper]

Prince Firefly He's gonna be a rockstar.

[PrincessNikki]

what about Cheese Sandwich?

[Taffeta]

what about Cheese Sandwich?

I am worried if Soarin' was named after a kid.

[cookifaa]

I'm all for naming kids after things, I'm named after a mermaid in a movie!

I'm not sure what pony names you could use for a boy though, maybe nicknames would be better? I have two friends, Tarn and Bobby who both have the nickname Bubbles, and a friend called Jakob who has the nickname Tex because he is from Texas (kinda obvious).

I guess you could use Tex? It's actually quite a nice name.

And I'm with Taffeta on the whole unusual spelling leading to mispronounciation. My name is pretty simple and now fairly common, but there are two main ways of spelling it, with one D or two. Mines spelt with just the one D but people always write it down with two, I'm forever correcting people. And I guess because it's more of an American (?) name, brits have a problem pronouncing it. I get called everything from Madeline to Medicine. I got so fed up of correcting people and telling them that's it's Madison, that I've gone by just Maddie for the last 10+ years.

Oh and I have a friend (haha) with the nickname Salty, for obvious reasons.

[KottonKandy]

I'm all for naming kids after things, I'm named after a mermaid in a movie!

I'm not sure what pony names you could use for a boy though, maybe nicknames would be better? I have two friends, Tarn and Bobby who both have the nickname Bubbles, and a friend called Jakob who has the nickname Tex because he is from Texas (kinda obvious).

I guess you could use Tex? It's actually quite a nice name.

And I'm with Taffeta on the whole unusual spelling leading to mispronounciation. My name is pretty simple and now fairly common, but there are two main ways of spelling it, with one D or two. Mines spelt with just the one D but people always write it down with two, I'm forever correcting people. And I guess because it's more of an American (?) name, brits have a problem pronouncing it. I get called everything from Madeline to Medicine. I got so fed up of correcting people and telling them that's it's Madison, that I've gone by just Maddie for the last 10+ years.

Oh and I have a friend (haha) with the nickname Salty, for obvious reasons.

I know your pain, partially anyways. My name isn’t too too common, but it’s well known enough to have a “normal” spelling. People assume it starts with “C”, but mine actually starts with “K.” I wonder if that’s partially why I’m so against this idea. I have a hard enough time getting my semi-normal name spelled correctly... I can only imagine how frustrating and needlessly complicated it could be to get people used to a name that isn’t even really a people name.
All around it seems like a really bad idea, IMHO. People names are very different from toy names. I mean, come on, ...
“GLO-WORM TONKA STEAMER, YOU GET AWAY FROM THAT RIGHT NOW!”
It’s just embarrassing for the child, and if you have any sense left, you’d be embarrassed too. . I’m sorry but it’s just tacky and tasteless to me.   

[Taffeta]

I am glad I'm not the only one with the awkward spelling/pronunciation crisis (although I feel for you guys too). The irony that I have is that people often can't spell Taffeta right, either. I get Tafetta and Teffeta and other things as well and that. is also. really annoying. The only excuse for that is if you happen to have a genuine problem with letters and spelling, like dyslexia.

@Cookiefaa - I would automatically spell your name the way you spell it anyway But I always work really hard to make sure I learn how someone spells and says their name because of that experience. I've been teaching students this year from all over the world and I made sure I learned every name and spelling properly in case I had to email them, because the timetabling dept couldn't even get my name right on the timetable. So annoying.

I think it's just that naming is something that you have to really think about because it's not just a temporary thing but something permanent and even if a kid can change that name later on, they still have to get through childhood and that's the worst time. I had a lot of issues with my name in school - teachers who were stupid and rude and just said they couldn't pronounce it, or invented new pronunciations, at least one of which was fairly embarrassing and led to teasing and jokes. So it might seem cute and fun to do it, but really think before you do.

[Taxel]

Not that I ever intend on having children, but I don't think I could really live with myself if I named a person after a toy. It would feel like an all-encompassing obsession rather than just a hobby at that point and I'd be inflicting that obsession on a tiny individual who has no say in the matter but has to be the one to live with that name for their entire lives. It just seems wrong, and almost disrespectful, in a lot of ways...
But different strokes for different folks! Kiddo could always legally change their name later in life if they wanted!

This is pretty much how I feel about it. The idea of my future kids' names looking like they were based on a movie, show, books, game, etc has bothered me enough to change the names I want to use completely or rearrange them (much to my boyfriend's annoyance). I just don't want my kids being compared to/comparing themselves to characters

I have friends with babies that are very blatantly named after things like comic book and video game characters. It just makes me cringe. A subtle nod, like the pony-related flower names mentioned already, would be one thing but they're as obvious as something like "Batman". Those poor kids are going to spend their lives being mocked and teased because of their parents' obsessions. They'll probably grow up hating the stupid thing they were named after anyways.

[cookifaa]

To be honest i do think that naming is very important, but if it's what you want then go for it, just take into consideration what you're actually naming your child after. I don't mind being named after a movie mermaid, splash is actually my favourite movie, and i personally was never teased because mermaids are great.

I do feel sorry for kids when it's really obvious that they've been named after things. I actually have met a Harry Potter and Sherlock Holmes (yes that's his name and I feel so sorry for him). No surprise Sherlock said that he hates Sherlock Holmes.

Post Merge: April 28, 2018, 05:45:30 AM

just thought I'd add that I do have a habit of naming animals after things though, for example;

i have a cat named Katniss
a rabbit named Willow after the Whomping Willow
three ducks named Milly, Molly and Mandy
a duck named Sprinkles
three chickens named Mikasa, Eren and Annie
and my horses nickname is NooNoo

I think I have a problem.

[Zapper]

 I think it's funny some think female pony names are ok for girls but it's cruel for boys. I'm sorry but if my parents named me Princess or Rarity I'd get a name change. Girls have dignity too and shouldn't get cutesy wootsy names that become really silly and strange once they are a few years old.
Imagine President or CEO Majesty Sparkle Smith. Nobody would take your daughter seriously. I cringe when I think of naming conventions where it's legal to name your daughter "candy" or "apple".

In my country parents actually tried to name their daughter Pepsi Cola and the court allowed them to use the "pepsi" part if they provided a legal second name. So they called the poor child Pepsi Carola