My problem with names is a personal ‘dumb’. I have Buddy and Sunny or is it Sonny…so far, I think I’ve spelled it differently for the vet, for when he was shipped, for the insurance company, and for the life of me I don’t know which it ought to be. I think he is a ‘Sonny’ not a ‘Sunny’, but with the ‘u’ already in my head from Buddy I tend to gravitate towards that.
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We had a gelding at the barn where that happened. Tons of people thought he was “Sunny” but his name was actually “Sonny”. I knew his name was Sonny and kept getting confused when people would write down that they wanted to ride some horse named Sunny.
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If you sing “I got you, babe!” to your pony, it is “Sonny.” 
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An old friend of mine proudly told his wife the broodmare had foaled a colt & he’d named it Sonny. When his wife came in from meeting the new arrival, she informed him he’d need to change the spelling bc it was a filly! 
. He owned that mare her whole life until his death 
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Funniest bit is I remember asking his breeder, ‘is he Sunny or Sonny?’ The silence was deafening! He is a ‘Son’ if I can just remember to spell it…thankfully, I don’t need to for the most part.
The boy in question, 7/8ths Shire, 1/8 Morgan and a picture for posterity, taken when he had just turned 2 and looking fairly balanced. (that is Buddy’s rump)
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My mare came with the name Doll because she’s so pretty and well behaved. More than once someone has met and and exclaimed “she’s such a doll!”. I agree that she’s a doll (obviously) but it’s just not a good name. I don’t like 1 syllable names in the first place so I changed it to Luna after Luna Lovegood, my favorite character in Harry Potter.
The only other one I’ve renamed was my first pony. He was called Acorn which didn’t suit him at all. We renamed him Spirit because he ran away with me when we went to try him 
a few months later, the movie Spirit came out and I was soo excited they copied my pony’s name lol.
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I have a foster horse here that the rescue named Kylo. My husband had to tell me where it came from, as I am not a huge Star Wars fan. I find it hard to say, so I call him Danny. He’s an older, laid-back easy going guy, and it just seems to fit him better. If he’s ever adopted I’m sure his name will change again.
My filly, on the other hand, has a registered name that no amount of imagination can draw a good call name from (U R A Hot Potential), and her breeder called her Deja. I didn’t like that either, found it hard not to follow up with Vue. She has an amazing forelock, so her call name is Zoey, as in the actress Zooey Deschanel, cause, bangs.
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I had a ottb named Mr. Kris Kringle, I called him Santa but sometimes he was the anagram - Satan.
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The sweetest, most adorable Welsh Pony in the world came with the name Cereal Killer. Yes, it’s funny if you see it in print but it was horrible when said aloud. I called her Willow.
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When I bought this mare, her registered name was unpronounceable without spitting all over anyone who was nearby.
BARTERAPHYRPHLYTE
I am not kidding. This was on her papers. Someone got set loose with PH sounding like an F, and never let go.
I changed it to Pappilon, due to a butterfly-shaped scar on her leg. Unfortunately in the 90s, this proved to be impossible for a show announcer to pronounce. Even when I made a note on the entry and spelled it out phonetically. POPPY-ON.
Eventually I gave up and changed her show name once again to Witchcraft.
As far as she knew, her name never was changed. She was Tara from day one.
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Sorry, I woulda kept that 
Kids’ ponies I recall:
Innertube (fat, black pony)
Fisher Price (Chestnut sabino paint)
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That would have made me laugh every time I saw the pony. 
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We’ve had many interesting names, some of which were theirs when we bought them, some we changed.
We had Rebel (HIS name, no changing ever),
Renegade -his name, no changing that I can remember
Princess -we did change her name but I don’t remember her OG name. She was a Welsh Hackney cross pony and Princess suited her as did her barn name Bitchy Pony. Her rider was BratBaby so…
Tasselhoff Burrfoot He was unnamed when we got him from the sale as a six month old. Granted we didn’t know he was that young but hey! Gorgeous little Welsh/QH strawberry roan pony. My sisters and I did all his training
Schmee barn name for my mama’s TWH. We did change his name I think. His registered name is long and I don’t remember it off the top of my head but Midnight Sun’s something
Hook my boy. He was originally named Ice Cream as his barn name and I absolutely refused to keep it. It didn’t fit him at all. I don’t know his registered name.
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Two of my favorite names ever were a medium (?) pony named Batteries Not Included and a big hunter whose dam had bitten his ear in half named Hear No Evil
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Some years ago we got a new gelding for our son. He is sorrel with white socks. He had a half brother (is that what you call it when they share a father?) who was in the mare pasture with him - same age, same sorrel/sock combination. The breeder gave them call names of Beavis and Butthead because they were always together and matchy-matchy goofball little dudes.
In an amazing example of self-fulfilling prophecy, our gelding Beavis has a lifelong habit of being very talkative at feeding time…he grunts heh-heh-heh-heh-heh just like, you guessed it, the way Beavis the cartoon character reflexively laughs. Every single feeding, every single day. The horse is 23 years old in a month and it still tickles me that he greets me in the morning with the heh-heh-heh-heh.
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Minglewood Blues? Interesting name… NFA 
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I bred a filly named Sugar Magnolia, and Sprout’s half-sibling is a gelding named Estimated Prophet…
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My last horse - had been George, then was Shiloh. Never changed his call name but did give him the show name Sharpe’s Diamond.
Here he is at 23
'scuse me i need to get my kleenex back from @Fiesta01
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I once saw a horse who’s official, registered show name was Spamhead Fishbottom. I wish I was joking.
My pony’s name was Sally, I kept it as she seemed to already somewhat respond, and 13 years on definitely knows her name. Can’t say I’m a fan but it stuck and somehow suits her. The young horse was being called Lady, but the girl I got her off who decided on that had only had her for a month and I hated it, so it changed to Eve. No idea if she knows it, she also gets called bugalugs alot. Don’t ask why…
I often wonder how dogs learn their name. Mine definitely knows his actual name, but also responds to a myriad of nicknames.
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Wow!! What a beautiful boy. 
I’m thinking maybe we both ought to buy stock in Kleenex at this point. 
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