How to Name a Robot Pony · 11:23pm Apr 13th, 2015
Hey everypony! For anyone curious, I'm putting up this post to discuss how I selected names for the mechanical pony in my story "The Iron Horse." Well, it was way way WAY harder than I thought it would be. I originally was just going to go with "Brass Hooves," but then I was like, "No, there are a million generic OCs named 'Something Hooves.'" I wanted to come up with something that would work, but still be cool. And I spent hours and hours coming up with names and trying to get some of them to work.
So, I came up with some rules to help me narrow down the list:
1. It had to sound like something from the show, and names usually follow some conventions:
*3 or 4 syllables most of the time
*something evocative of imagery or a natural thing related to personality or talent
*OR a regular name made into a horse pun
2. It had to have some meaning related to robotics or machines or something like that
3. It had to be something Twilight or one of the others would actually come up with
So, here's the complete list of every single name I had on my list, including the purposefully bad ones I gave to Applejack and Rainbow Dash to throw out derisively. My original notes are also included.
1 Autom* (suggested by Listie The Scribe Maid)2 Brass Hooves*3 Brass Starlight4 Amethyst Gleam5 Ironsides
6 Galatea
7 QT (abbreviation pending [see next three names])*8 Thunderbolt
9 Turnkey
10 Turing*
*Turing Test?* (WINNER)11 Charger12 Aya (GL series tribute, take on “AI”)
13 ***** (saved for later use)
14 Cog Nisha* (2nd Place)
15 Cyberia16 Autumn Eight
17 Sprockette* (3rd Place)18 Clockwork (need to check, might be taken)]/s]19 Brass Clockwork
20 ***** (saved for later use)
21 Goth Raygun22 Spinning Cog
23 Copper Clock24 Gear Shift25 Top Gear
Purposefully bad names AJ and RD can suggest: Junk Heap, Rust Bucket, Jalopy Jane, Clanky, Motorhead, Wind-up, Tin Can, Enginiffer, Rusty Piston
*=Favorites
Though I didn't end up using all the names in the "elimination process" section of Chapter 4, I still only had a few favorites. "Sprockette," I didn't use only because I had already made Gadget's name with the same feminizing play on words: her real name is "Gadgette." My personal favorite one was "Cog Nisha," as a joke on "Cognition," but the problem with an overly punny name is that it feels witty at first and then annoying every time after that. Also, it didn't have the same alliterative appeal as some of the others. So, in the end, the one that fit all my requirements was "Turing Test." Though the others will likely use other, shorter names, like simply "Turing," "Tee," "Rin/Ring/Rinny," etc.
I hope everyone finds this informative!