What’s in a Name?

By Lauren Levy

How do people come up with clever foal names? What are some of the stories behind the more creative choices? Is it getting harder to come up with names these days as the number of registered horses continues to grow? The masterminds behind some of the cleverest, cutest, and funniest foal names have the answers to these questions.

Some Are Named After Songs

A common naming convention among many breeders is naming horses after popular tunes. Kylie Rice and her husband, Tatum Rice, who trains cutting horses, say, “We raised two full siblings last year and named the filly Lookin for Love and the colt Pickinupstrangers. Both names are old Johnny Lee songs.” That same year, they named another cutting horse stallion Rollin In The Deep, alluding to a famous Adele song. In addition, Kylie says they also have a yearling High Brow Cat stud out of Dual Lookin Pep that they named Lookin Likeya Like after a phrase in a rap song.

But their musically-inclined names don’t stop there. Kylie explains, “We have one mare that we got as a yearling, and her name was Rays Little Cat, which we thought was boring. Tatum came up with the name Reyhanna, which is pronounced like Rihanna the singer.” Reyhanna, the horse, has become famous in her own right. According to Kylie, Reyhanna has earned about $110,000 in prize money and was the Reserve Champion at the Bonanza Cutting and the Idaho Futurity.

Karen Kennedy is another baby naming expert and equestrian who enjoys using songs when naming her horses. She likes doing this because, “You can do little catchy things with them.” Karen did this when she renamed one of her horses twice before finally settling on Hide Your Crazy as her horse’s registered name after a line in country singer Miranda Lambert’s song, “Mama’s Broken Heart.” She explains, “I was in Saint Augustine, Florida with some friends, and we were in a club. Someone started talking about that song, and my friend said, ‘That would be a perfect name for a horse, because they all have a crazy side that you’re trying to hide!’”

Other Names Use a Play On Words

Many clever registered names like Sompin Catchy, Tailing White Lies, and Hot Fudge Sundi use a play on words. Besides using musical inspiration to name their horses, Kylie says she and Tatum also create names that utilize a play on words. “My dad owns a stud named Smart Boons, and this year we named one of his colts Diggin Up Boons. Also, my husband and I got married last year, so we named one Honeyboon.” They also had a filly this year by Dual Rey that they named Lingerey, and they have a mare named Maliblu, whose weanling filly they registered as Maliblu Barbie.
Jenny Honey, long-time breeder and wife of pleasure horse trainer Jeff Honey, says that one of her most clever play on words names was created while she was driving in the car. “My family always laughs at me, because I will be driving down the road trying to think of names because I have to name two or three new foals a year.” She says the name of one of her two year-olds by Zippos Sheik came about in this manner. She named him No Sheik Sherlock.

In addition, Kathy Smallwood, a Professional Horseman and breeder, says her husband came up with the name Fairy Tail one day while he was browsing the Internet for inspiration. He thought it would be fun to name a horse after a fable. He quickly realized that Fairy Tail would be a clever play-on-words name.

Some Are Inspired By Life Events

Steve Heckaman is a well-known Quarter Horse trainer and breeder. Some of his most clever registered names have been inspired by real-life events. He renamed one mare Kudos For Katherine, aka “Sadie,” in honor of his late wife, Mary Carole, who was killed in a car accident. Steve explains, “Her name just did not seem to fit her. I showed her in the Masters at the Congress. Then, when the deadline came up for changing her name, I made the decision to do so for my [late] wife.” Today, Sadie’s registered name is Shezonlyinmydreams, and she lives a happy life as a retired broodmare with her owner, Kari Grefsrud.

Disavowed is another horse that got a new name from Steve after a personal incident affecting the trainer became common knowledge around the AQHA circuit. Steve explains, “About the time I had this gelding, I felt ostracized by my fellow trainers. They were pretty hard on me in the show arena, and it felt like I had been disavowed from the trainers’ or exhibitors’ club. I like to think of it as being from the Mission Impossible movie where they played a tape with the mission on it saying, ‘If you are captured or caught, any acknowledgement of your existence will be disavowed.’ That’s where I got the name for that one.”

Some Just Happen

Nancy Sue Ryan, an accomplished AQHA trainer, judge, and breeder, says that many times someone will just say something that she thinks would make a great foal name. “Just little terms, that you hear people say, often make good names.” She recently used this naming convention when she named a foal Just Saying.

Nancy says that unfortunately one of the best phrases she ever heard someone say, that could be made into a horse’s name, has slipped her mind for good. She explains, “I have beating my head into the wall, because I was watching a TV show and one of the characters said three words together. I thought, ‘That would be the best name for a horse,’ but I fell asleep. To this day, I cannot remember the phrase they said.”

One horse, named by Kathy Smallwood and her husband, provides a particularly good example of how randomly some horse names can come about. Kathy says the horse she named Shooz got his name while she and her husband were out to dinner. “We were eating, and we were trying to think up names for our foal crop that year. I suggested that we name one of our foals after an inanimate object like a shoe. The name stuck, but we decided to spell it unconventionally so it would be unique and different.” Kathy adds that she and her husband like to keep marketing ideas in mind when naming babies. They figured, with a name like Shooz, they could place a stiletto high heel into any ad and people would remember the horse’s name.

In relation to the theme that “some names just happen,” many breeders state that they use no naming conventions when trying to think of foal names. Karen Kennedy was especially firm about her response stating, “There are no rules. We just do what strikes our fancy.” Still, she says her husband has to agree on the name before it is sent in for registration. “One time, I wanted to name a foal Fancy Nancy, and my husband told me, ‘You cannot name a foal Fancy Nancy!’ ” Jenny Honey adds, “I don’t have any rules when naming foals. I’ve thought before that I should come up with some sort of a theme, like songs or country singers I like, but I don’t. It never works out. So, I just come up with what I like, usually.”

Nevertheless, Nancy Sue says it is important to keep guidelines in mind when naming some foals. She explains, “For a stallion, they say you have to be able to say the name quickly three times in a row and not get tongue tied in order for people to remember it.” Kathy Smallwood uses this guideline when naming the colts she thinks have a particularly promising future. She explains why she named one colt Valentino after the famous movie star, Rudolph Valentino. “He was just one of those that was like, ‘I am special.’ So we decided to name him something that rolls off people’s tongues. It’s one word and only four syllables, which we think about when naming babies.” She says people come up to her and ask about Valentino all the time, because they remember his name. Another colt they named Vigilanti for the same reason. Many breeders explain that they like to keep a stallion’s name to a two word maximum to help it stick better in people’s minds.

Some Include Bloodlines

Following tradition, some breeders include part of the sire or dam’s registered name in the foal’s name. Karen Kennedy says, “I had one little mare that I named Yella Polka Dot Bikini, [which is] another name that came from a song. One I named Real Fancy Footwork.” She came up with these names by trying to include the sire’s name in the foal’s name. “Yella Polka Dot Bikini is by Mr. Yella Fella,” she says. “So, I was looking for something with the ‘yella’ in it. Real Fancy Footwork’s mom’s name is Sheza Real Flasher, and the sire’s name is Zip Loose and Fancy Free. The name Real Fancy Footwork seemed natural.”

Nancy Sue says one of her daughter’s horses, Gracious N Fabulous aka “Grace,” got her name from her father, Fabuluke. The story behind the mare’s name is that her dam, Katt Sass, only had colts for dam owner Andrea Myers during the year the mare was born. When Grace was born, Andrea said it was “by the grace of God” that she was a filly. According to Nancy, “Of course, she was fabulous; hence the name, Gracious N Fabulous.” Nancy Sue also named some of her recent foals after her mare Lukeable, who passed away. Some of the names she came up with for Lukeable’s babies include Enterprisable and Walkable.

Others Stray Away From Referencing Bloodlines

For decades, it has been a breeding tradition to include part of the sire or dam’s name in the registered names of the foals that are born each season. However, many breeders are beginning to stray away from this convention. Steve Heckaman, who raised Potential Investment and has been in the breeding business for 25 years, says, “In the beginning, I think I put ‘Potential’ in a lot of the names because I wanted to create a little bit of a trademark. Then, after there started to be several of Potential Investment’s sons out there standing, and they started putting ‘Potential’ in their names, I kind of veered away from that a little bit. A lot of good ‘Potential’ names were already taken.”

Instead, he decided to start coming up with names that were related to money or investments. Even today, those names have become very common. “I have one gelding now whose name is Your Money’s No Good. I named another one Interest Account one time. You can do a lot of plays on words with ‘Investment’ names.”

Although Jenny Honey does name some of her foals after their bloodlines, she is shying away from doing that now. “I used to always try to do that, but now it’s getting to a point where it’s hard to come up with something original [that] someone else has not already thought of when using the stallion’s name. So, I just try to go with something that I think is cute and catchy instead.” Kathy Smallwood says she does the same when naming her foals. “I like my babies to have names that fit them individually and are unique.”

Nancy Sue comments on how much harder it is becoming to create names these days, saying, “It’s so hard to name them, because you think you have a good one and you look it up on the registration site, and someone has usually already taken what you want. Some names go back as far as the 1930s, but you still cannot use them until they are re-released.”

Sometimes, however, breeders get lucky. Kathy Smallwood says, “When we went to name our colt Valentino, I suspected the name had already been taken. We looked, and it was on the list as being taken, but from years and years ago. We called and asked if it was going to be available, and AQHA said it was.” Valentino is out of Innocent Touch and by The Top Secret. In this way, he is a perfect example of a modern day foal whose name contains no connection to his bloodline.

No Matter What, You Can’t Name it ‘Till You See it

Most breeders keep running lists of potential foal names in order to save up for their upcoming foal crops. Karen Kennedy says she currently has a list of about twenty-five names. However, all of the interviewees agree that you can’t assign a name to a foal until it is born. Steve Heckaman explains, “I kind of keep a list, but I feel like the name has to fit the horse.” Kylie and Tatum Rice say that sometimes they have names in mind for a certain baby with specific bloodlines. However, they like to know the personality of their foals before officially naming them. If none of the names they have already thought of fit the horse, most breeders say they will wait until the perfect name comes to mind. Karen says, in her particular case, she and her husband only breed riding horses. “We do not do anything with them until they are two,” she says. “So, it gives us a lot of time to think of something we like and make changes when we want.”

Some Names You Won’t Want to Miss

Suggestive Names:
Can’t Stay Zipped, Big Blue Jewels, Tonightsthenighthoney, Caught in the Closet
Clever/Funny Names:
Daddy’s Retirement, Barry Goodlook, Fluffy the Killer, Like Heck, Daddy Said No, Hunt Coats Required, Watching TV

Play on Words:
Buck Em All, Dam I’m Hot, Hoof Hard Ted, Buck Naked, Edgar Allen Pony, Tails of Whoa, Kiss My Brass, Hez Kickin Asset, Ona Vacation, Jazzercyzed, Hoo’s Your Daddy, League of Her Roan, Luke At Me

Pop Culture:
Cindy Lou Hoo, McLovin, McDreamy, Mazeratti, Dirty Sexy Money, LL Cool Bay, Marmaluke

Worst Name:
Birds Go Bruce (a horse bought by Nancy Sue), Roscoe T Horse

 

Click here to read the complete article from the Equine Chronicle January/February 2014 Issue, Vol. 17 Number 1.