Reddit Reposting, Episode 8: Pony Names

2022 Meta (+opportunity to shape next week’s post)

Today we have a short bonus post before I take my hiatus. It may be closer to a two-week hiatus, as the next post in the series will require some high-effort rewriting. In fact, since it relies on about 40–50 video embeds, it’ll be a Fimfiction exclusive.

What is it? A list of alternate musical themes for characters and places. Go read the original Reddit post I just linked: even with the copyright-induced link rot [as in I need to find alternate embeddable links for about ⅓ of the videos for the rewrite], it’s still well worth your time.

For all zero of you who just read the linked Reddit post, I have two questions:

1. Do you disagree with any of my selections?
2. What are ponies and places that I’ve missed?

To help with the second, here are additions and gaps I want to address in my 2022 rewrite:

• “Uranus” from Holst’s Planets as the Startrix tsundere lesbian romance song

• Leitmotifs for G5 characters and cities.

  • Pipp’s song is #SELFIE by The Chainsmokers.
  • Sprout may receive “Three Little Birdies Down Beats” by The Chemical Brothers as his jam
  • I may re-use Turangalîla Mvt. 6 (used as both the Everfree night theme as well as Zecora’s sleeping song) as Bridlewood’s music
  • Suggestions are highly welcome!
• Yona (and the Yaks in general), of course, is assigned to the Anvil Chorus
• The jazz cover of “Game of Pairs” will be upgraded from the alternate alternative to Discord’s main pick.
• I’d like to find music for Autumn Blaze and the kirins (two selections, presumably), but I’m now drawing a blank. Too many travel and other writing projects are in the way.
• If someone wants to make suggestions for the Student Six, I’m all ears. However, I do not know them well enough to assign music to them (except for Yona)
• Input is also welcome for Cozy Glow and Grogar
• Use this recording to replace the copyright-stricken original one I linked for Chrysalis

As you may have noticed, this meta section about next week’s post is longer than the discussion repost itself. Why? The upcoming post is quite possibly my favorite of the entire series. Each and every one of the selections I picked is music I genuinely enjoy. The music speaks for itself with relatively few words of essay. My 2017 music selection game was on-point. Both this list and my edgy Con playlist are nonstop bangers.

2017 Meta

“The Perfect Pear” actually gave canon to some of my ideas, but I wrote down my ideas around two weeks ago [2022 clarification: as in before I watched that episode]. The new episode just gave me a reason to publish my thoughts on them. It also is one of the most wholesome episodes I’ve seen of any show in a long time.

The actual pony name discussion you came here to read

• MLP naming conventions are not at all out of line compared to IRL equine naming conventions. Although racehorses are not named with the same absurdity that we name show dogs, MLP ponies and IRL racehorses tend to have “unusual” names.

• Having a strict family naming convention is much more common among Earth ponies (but still not the norm) than in other races (see the Apple, Pie, Orange, and Pear families). Even among families with pre-defined naming conventions, using a surname like the Pie family is unusual.

  • However, families of ponies outside families with strong identities still may have brief stretches of similar names (e.g., Twilight Sparkle from Twilight Velvet)
• Speculation that The Perfect Pear confirmed: ponies may change their name throughout their lifetime as their circumstances change (e.g., Pear Butter being primarily known as Buttercup or ponies adopting a new name when they discover their cutie mark or grow into their stage name)

The most interesting part about pony names is how common destiny names¹ tend to be in Equestria in families without rigid naming conventions. Some of this may be speculated to be because of ponies renaming themselves after earning their cutie mark, but it seems like if name changes were a frequent part of a cutceñera celebration, then the show would have made a point of it. Instead, I have two theories as to why a pony’s birth name so often cleanly lines up with their cutie mark or talent:

1. Similar talents run in families. The parents of a new foal can easily guess a good name that will fit their child’s entire life.
2. Outside of families with a family naming convention, foals aren’t given a permanent birth name for a while after they’re born. Instead, their parents wait for a few months for the foal’s fundamental personality traits to reveal themselves before deciding on their foal’s name.

Deliberately omitted is the idea that part of Equestria’s background magic forms ponies into their name since that’s less exciting world-building. Perhaps there are some background effects, but the idea that a foal’s parents can greatly influence what talents their foals have just by carefully picking their names doesn’t seem to fit into the MLP universe².

1. in human terms, it’s the anecdote about children named Dennis being much more likely to become dentists than the general population
2. 2022 update: Actually, it does fit with the way the writers wrote the show: it's obvious (a.k.a. boring) destiny-fulfillment