Cross Breeds

How do race horses get their strange names?

It seems like racehorses always have odd names, like "Archarcharch" "Pants on Fire" and "Mine That Bird" - how do people name the horses, and what do these names mean? Is there some kind of tradition regarding how the horses are named?

Public Comments

1. So us woman pick them lol
2. The owners registers the horses name before it does it's first race. The owners at time use mental names but tradition is not always the reason it's up to the owner
3. No two TB horses can have the same name so, selecting something that has not already been chosen is difficult. Also a name cannot sound to like a previous named horse. A name can be used agin if the original named horse never won a race under rules and has been dead for a certain number of years. Some owners take part of the stallions name and part of the mares as with Mine That Bird by Birdstone out of Mining My Own. The names do not have t mean anything but (in the UK) cannot contain more than 16 letters including spaces.
4. They get their names from thier stud, dam or from the owners. Archarcharch was named because they wanted the name to be memorable and catchy.
5. The rules regarding naming Thoroughbred racehorses are simple. These are the restrictions, you CANNOT name a racehorse: 1. Names cannot have more than 18 letters (spaces and punctuation marks count as letters); 2. Names cannot consist entirely of initials such as C.O.D., F.O.B., etc.; 3. Names cannot end in "filly," "colt," "stud," "mare," "stallion," or any similar horse-related term; 4. Names cannot consist entirely of numbers. Numbers above thirty may be used if they are spelled out; 5. Names cannot end with a numerical designation such as "2nd" or "3rd," whether or not such a designation is spelled out; 6. You cannot use the names of living persons unless written permission to use their name is on file with The Jockey Club; 7. You cannot use the names of persons no longer living unless approval is granted by The Jockey Club based upon a satisfactory written explanation submitted to the Registrar; 8. You cannot use the names of racetracks or graded stakes races; 9. You cannot use names clearly having commercial, artistic or creative significance; 10. No names that are suggestive or have a vulgar or obscene meaning; names considered in poor taste; or names that may be offensive to religious, political or ethnic groups; 11. No names that appear to be designed to harass, humiliate or disparage a specific individual, group of individuals or entity; 12. No names that are currently active either in racing or breeding.; 13. No names of winners in the past 25 years of grade one stakes races; 14. Permanently unavailable names. The list of criteria to establish a permanently unavailable name is as follows: a. Horses in racing's Hall of Fame; b. Horses that have been voted Horse of the Year; c. Horses that have won an Eclipse Award; d. Horses that have won a Sovereign Award (Canadian Champions); e. Annual leading sire and broodmare sire by progeny earnings; f. Cumulative money winners of $2 million or more; g. Horses that have won the Kentucky Derby, Preakness, Belmont Stakes, The Jockey Club Gold Cup, the Breeders' Cup Classic or the Breeders' Cup Turf; and h. Horses included in the International List of Protected Names. 15. Names similar in spelling or pronunciation to the classes of names listed. So those are the limitations. Within those limitations, you can do pretty much anything you want to do. Some breeders and owners have their own conventions about naming horses. Claiborne Farm, for example, tries to name horses with a single word of seven letters or less. Noteworthy horses they've named are Swale, who won the Kentucky Derby; Blame, who beat Zenyatta in the Breeders' Cup Classic last year; Pulpit, who is now a leading sire; and Arch, who was the sire of Archarcharch. Claiborne takes great pride in coming up with simple names for their horses that are usually a clever play on the names of the sire and dam. Many breeders use the name of the sire and dam to come up with clever names. (One of my all-time favorites was Jockey Club Gold Cup winner Private Thoughts, who was sired by a horse named Pretense, out of a mare named Let's Be Gay.) Some names have a meaning that's special or significant to the person who named the horse. The great Thoroughbred and leading sire of the 1800's, Spendthrift, was supposedly named to commemorate a memorable shopping expedition of the owner's wife. (The wife had some horses of her own, and named one Miser in retaliation.) The mare Last Time Up, by Porterhouse out of Modern Music, got her name because her sire, Porterhouse, died of a heart attack while in the act of breeding her dam. Her breeder, Peter Tattersall, decided to name her Last Time Up because it was the stallion's last time up! Recent champion Lookin at Lucky got his name because when trainer Bob Baffert bought him for his owner, Baffert told the owner, "You're looking at lucky!" And so it goes. There's a story behind the names of most Thoroughbreds, and that's one of the things that make it fun to name a racehorse.
6. The Jockey Club requires all American racehorses to be registered with a 'unique' name, meaning no other horse can have been registered using the name within a certain length of time, and 'famous horse's names' are off-limits forever. The name has to be under a certain number of letters with several other restrictions and several names must be submitted for each horse with the jockey club making the choice. So, 'common' names have already been taken, and may not be used again meaning owners need to get creative! Keep in mind that racehorses are not called by their registered names around the barn, their trainers and grooms will use a 'barn name' for that. For example, Man O' War's 'barn name' was "Red."