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What’s In A Name?

roamingridersite

Everything.

Eeyore is a cute name for a horse and at first I thought it described his laid back attitude, but the more I get to know him the more I dislike it. He isn’t gloomy, pokey or down.  In fact he is the exact opposite. He loves life, plays in the water tub and follows me happily around as I do outside chores getting in the way and demanding attention.

This is Wedgie. Trainer found her on the side of the highway two weeks ago. When she went to grab her, the kitty jumped into a crack in the cement barrier and was stuck. She called me in a panic, I passed it to Dusty and 30 minutes later Wedgie was retrieved unharmed from the barrier and in a cage at Dusty’s work while he worked her up for diseases. She fond her new home this week with one of Trainer’s boarders. 

Sure he isn’t a spooky or crazy horse but the Big E has a lovely forward walk and trot when he wants to and a zest for living it up. Well, until he decides he is done and then his stubborn side comes out. And believe me he can be stubborn. Yet even when he is being stubborn he still comes around eventually and is generally pretty amenable to most things. With a heaping dose of side eye.

Wyatt’s fishing obsession continues. He caught his own dinner Monday night. 

He needs a new a name.

And yet I’m having difficulty finding one that suits him. Liz offered up Tigger and it’s a good idea but I actually really dislike Pooh and can’t see going the next 15 years tied to that. Plus I believe in the power of names and I don’t need him to become a lunatic. He is only 7 which is still plenty young with some maturity yet to happen.

In keeping with the cartoon theme I was hooked on Olaf for a while. I mean it suits him plenty well. He is friendly, loves hugs, is quite literal about things and while he isn’t stupid he also isn’t the sharpest in my pasture either.

PC Pinterest somewhere. I’m bad at this. 

But I don’t know. I’m not really feeling the cartoon character vibe.

What I really want is to go with a South American theme as a salute to the South America shaped blaze on his face. It’s the first thing people mention when they see him. I can’t find anything along those lines though. I can find a list of Spanish names but he isn’t a Miguel. I already know two Rios so that isn’t going to work tho I like the name. He needs something just a little silly and full of life.

If you hadn’t seen it before, now you won’t be able not to. 

I’ve been doing some research and love the tradition of the alebrije, the brightly colored and fantastical spirit animals of Mexican folklore. I was first turned out to this tradition when I saw the movie Coco, one of my favorite cartoon movies of recent years, and became obsessed with the Day of the Dead tradition. In the moive, the main character’s alebrije is a rather Big E like dog named Dante. This would probably suit the Big E well except there is already a well known blogger with a Dante.

dante.PNG
Dante. PC the internet

Of course, Mexico isn’t in South America either so there is that. It is a rabbit hole folks and I am lost down in it.

After hours of scouring the internet and wracking my brain I am at a loss. This is the reason Gem and Pete kept their original names. Other pets have included: Hero the corgi, Bones the mutt, Smokey the grey cat, Echo the calico cat, Waggy Tails the berner, Einstein the boykin and Gizmo/Wyatt the guinea pig. I’m fresh out. But the Big E needs a better name and he needs it soon or he will end up being the Big E for forever.

So bloggers…any suggestions?? I’m really coming up short here. Any ideas are welcome! If I wasn’t putting all my money into the Volunteer Challenge I’d offer up a prize, but I can’t so just know any suggestions will be greatly appreciated!

Published by roamingridersite

42 thoughts on “What’s In A Name?”

  2. Hey, Waggy Tails is not the name he came with, your son did that. Right?: ) I admit I’ve been trying to find a name for your brilliantly colored, laid back horse. And I’m afraid you’re confirming my experience that Appys are stubborn. Not always a bad thing, since I’ve got the stubbornest of them all, a donkey.

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    1. Yup he named Waggy and Gizmo. I came up with all the rest minus Gem and Pete as they kept theirs. Naming is hard. He is very stubborn but his lazy side wins out so he doesn’t dig in and draw a line in the sand too much.

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  4. I’m terrible at naming creatures I don’t know. Both of our cats didn’t have names for a few days while we contemplated who they are. I did find a few options that I thought you might want to consider:
    Vidal – meaning relates to being alive/lively
    Felix – generally agreed means happy
    Zorro – masked sword fighter or fox 😉
    Sebastian – obviously a character from little mermaid but a pretty typical Spanish name
    Isidro/Ysidro – male name
    Lucio

    Also, if you have a specific word that you think describes No-longer-Eeyore, I can give you the Spanish translation of that word and you can consider that as a potential new name.

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  6. oh man, good luck! i’m also really freakin terrible at naming things and almost always keep whatever the original name was too…. i can definitely get on board with changing the name from Eeyore, just bc the connotations aren’t really fantastic even if it’s kinda cute.

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  7. Ah well, there is Chile in South America but I’m not sure he’s a Chile lol. Names really are super hard. I didn’t even have a nickname for Amber until after I’d been working with her for 4 months lol. I can throw a bunch out there but they may have no connotation to South America at all.
    -Spotify might be funny (since he has spots? so horrible lol)
    -Diogo (Portuguese version of Diego for an explorer named Diogo)
    -Sinbad (I actually really like this one for Big E – sort of cartoon-ish but also fun loving, silly and a bit stubborn!)
    -Joaquin
    -Vasco (old medieval Spanish form of an explorer – since he’s fun loving I was thinking explorer-ish type lol)
    -Ryker
    -Rover
    -Perry or Peregrine (means traveler)
    -Amerigo (for explorer Amerigo Vespucci)
    -Pedro
    And that is all I have lol. I’m hoping that helps because hopefully you’ll find one! Sometimes it can be a moment down the road where you’ll think of something and be able to change the name, but hopefully us bloggers have helped you out a bit haha.

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  11. He definitely can’t stay “Big E” since thats an euphemism in eventing for Eliminated. LOL. I had a horse named Te Amo – barn name Cruz, which I always liked. That fit him though. It’s definitely hard to make suggestions without knowing him. Aside from just looking at South American boy names, have you tried looking at rivers, mountains, cities, etc? Sometimes those can be really good sources for names.

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  12. I think of South America and think first of Brazil and the Amazon by extension. Then I think about Patagonia and Argentina and Chile. There are oodles of rivers, mountain ranges, flora, and fauna with neat names and equally amazing stories about people who explored and discovered them. Each of the aforementioned countries has culture steeped with horses and livestock, cowboys (in the ranch workman sense and the showman sense), and, in the case of Brazil, bull riding, or for Argentina, polo. Additionally, the Galapagos are off the northwestern coast (Ecuador) and those bring with them oodles of other cool animals, neat evolution, and, of course, thoughts of Darwin!

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  17. You might try this site for some inspiration. https://horses.lovetoknow.com/horse-names/spanish-horse-names

    Also, maybe Amigo (friend) or Sueno (dream),if you dont mind the special n prononciation.

    You are definitely on the right track in finding something that vibes with his happy going laid back personnality. Best to keep it short with hard consonants (T, C/K, P, B); and for a male, stick to words in spanish that end with O, Z, or D. Like Topaz. Otherise, be ready with a barn name.

    Good luck. Its super hard.

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  18. I do like the suggestion Andes and calling him Andy. He could definitely pull off Andy.
    Some other suggestions …
    Chili Willie 😂
    Peru becomes Perry or Roo?
    And that’s about all I got. Brain is tired from chasing after horses and children all day today!!!

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  19. I feel you on the names thing. It’s why I’m glad I’m giving my baby Paso Fino to a friend; I could NOT come up with a good registered name, and the barn name he came to me with (Elvis) is NOT who he is.

    And I’m in a quibble with another person about another Paso I have who insists on using her registered name of “Primadonna” when she talks about her. And I keep insisting that this mare is SO FAR from a prima donna that I can’t call her that. Because, words have power and can draw that kind of energy.

    You would think with some Spanish bred horses I could be helpful here…but I’m drawing a blank.

    Going in an entirely different direction, what about favorite songs or book characters? Anything like those that might appeal to you?

    Sometimes it just takes a LOT of time for an animal to reveal it’s name to you.

    I can’t wait to see what his finally is!!! 🙂

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  23. I thought all weekend about famous South Americans. Pele the soccer player. Carmen Miranda (taken!). Tschiffely the long distance rider (hah!). Polo the sport. Pablo Neruda the poet. Evita Peron the first lady. So Pele, Pablo, Polo or Peron. I guess I like P names.

    I also like Samba.

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  24. Awww man, I’m horrible with names, which is why I kept P’s awful JC name (Forever Gallant) as his show name. I agree that Eeyore was cute, but doesn’t describe the horse you’re getting to know.

    For the South American theme, what about something like Santiago, Chave or Cortez?

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  26. I like unique names and am a huge believer in that animals (and people) live up to the names we give them. Here are a few lists for you.

    Some of the mountains of the Andes range in South America: Sajama, Illimari, Acotango (nickname could be Tango), Kunturiri, Cashan, Linzor, Nevado (there are a couple of peaks named “Nevado- something or other”. “Nevado” means “snowed-upon.” Appropriate for an appy.) The list of mountain names in the Andes is quite long: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_mountains_in_the_Andes These were just some of the ones I personally liked because they weren’t too hard to pronounce (most of them are Native words, so you might want to look up what they mean) or didn’t sound like something dirty in Spanish.

    I always wanted to name a showjumper after a bird. Because flying. Some cool South American birds: Quetzal, there are a variety of Falcons, Tortolo (male dove), Tinamou, Curassow (pronounced very similar to “Curacao” (Ku-rah-zah-oh), which is a Dutch island in the lesser Antilles just off of the coast of South America in the Caribbean Sea. Curacao is also a liqueur), Sunangel (a type of hummingbird).

    Common male names in Spanish that are not your average “Jose”, “Pedro”, “Juan” names (yes, I am rolling my eyes at those.):
    – Matias (Matthew)
    – Alejandro (Alexander. Like Alexander the Great.)
    – Joaquin (“ho-ah-keen”)
    – Rodrigo
    – Javier
    – Gael
    – Santiago (I personally adore Santiago)
    – Dario (Dah-Ree-oh)
    – Diego
    – Felipe (Phillip. The name Phillip means “friend of horses.”)

    Cool Spanish words that double as names:
    – Arcangel (Guardian Angel)
    – Valiente (Vah-lee-ehn-teh. Means “Brave.”)
    – Corazon (Heart)
    – Vuelo (Vweh-loh. “To fly”)
    – Zafiro (Sapphire)
    – Caju (Kah-joo. Stormy wind that blows off the coast of Brazil. This one is Native Brazilian, not Spanish.)
    – Alisio (Ah-lee-see-oh. Easterly tradewind that blows off of the Caribbean (the northern part of South America faces the Caribbean). These winds are usually gentle and cooling.)
    – Norte (North. Also refers to finding your direction in life, that which guides you: “encontrar tu norte”)

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