Names for OCs or Background Ponies · 4:31pm Apr 24th, 2013
Garbo802 was recently in search of OCs to use in a large project he's working on, and I remembered that I recently found a treasure trove of pony names. My mom has one of those full collections of paint chips/cards that paint companies sometimes give to decorators- the ones with all of the cards hooked together on the metal rings. I had noticed that there were a lot of paint colors that sounded like pony names, so I asked if he'd be interested in me transcribing some.
I was going to do twenty or thirty for him, but since I borrowed it from mom and had to give it back, I went ahead and typed up anything that sounds like a pony name. I figured I'd post it here, and if anyone wants to use them, they're welcome to. I can't promise that these are totally original- the might be the names of background ponies or OCs already, but there are none here that I recognized at least.
So here are 95 pony names, courtesy of Sherwin Williams interior paint colors:
Silverplate
Big Chill
First Star
River Pebble
Heavy Metal
Rosevale
Coral Sands
Sandspit
Sand Storm
Knubby Wool
Fresco Cream
Sundew
Leatherleaf
Dillweed
Silvery Sage
Windstream
Rhinestone
Blazing Star
Twilight Time
Mauvelous
Pink Parasol
Cockleshell
Chic Peach
Sugar Blush
Rustique
Peach Sorbet
Peach Tree
Cinnamon Sprinkle
Amber Grain
Buttery
Straw Doll
Harvest Moon
Apple Gold
Brass Tack
Snapdragon
Honeysuckle
Floreal
Candleglow
Shimmer
Paper Moon
Haymarket
Buccaneer Gold
Thatched Straw
Gold Strand
Seedling
Willow
Meadowland
Farm Fresh
Lime Light
Dewy Grass
Mint Frappe
Silver Spring
Effervescence
Seabreeze
Nautique
Twinight
Larkspur
Violette
Boisenberry
Cloudberry
Lovender
Ruffled Iris
Grapevine
Lacy Lilac
Razzberry Fizz
Mulberry Bush
Radicchio
Berry Mousse
Silken Ribbon
Lilac Bouquet
Soft Heather
Laurel Blossom
Strawberry Cream
Strawberry Fields
Primrose
Gumdrop
Pink Champagne
Nectarina
Golden Flicker
Corn Silk
Glitter Gold
Gilded Lily
Buttercream
Sunspot
Lime Tart
Minty
Surfside
Sea Star
Sonata
Finesse
Blue Diamond
Blue Note
Star Sapphire
Coquette
Sweet Violet
I will be using this. Profusely. I am terrible with names.
This ... this is very helpful. Thank you so much!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Sapphire_(comics)
1031207
You missed Paper Moon:
Geez, you and Cleverpun did this within an hour of eachother, an now my feed is jam-effing-packed with ponyname!
EDIT: so apparently not within any significantly short length of time after all, but you wound up next to eachother in my feed, so there!
...wow. I am impressed both by the variety and the fact that these things were just sitting out there in the world, waiting to be used for pony stories. I don't usually need a whole lot of background pony names, but when I do, I find them terribly difficult to think of. This is an amazing resource.
Also, Twinight sounds like it should be the proper name for a Twilight Sparkle / Nightmare Moon pairing (or potentially other pairings, if one has read Skywriter's "Contraptionology"), not a new pony name...
1031225
I agree about Twinight, but I included it for the portmanteau factor of names like Fluttershy.
Excellent! I'm terrible at creating names, so I'll copy these for future ref. Thanks for that.
I also found this pony name generator a while back (creates one from scratch and does a lot more, besides) and this other name generator which is harder to use and apparently does the same thing (on second thought this one isn't very good). Results may vary...
...
Sorry, but I have no polite words. This 'name' ate my brain.
*After regenerating the lost grey matter*
On the other hand, most of the other names are quite interesting.
Edit: *After acquiring resistance to brain-eating effects*
But seriously, what is it supposed to be, in your opinion, - 'love' and 'lavender' meshed together or 'love+ender'?
1031309
Blame Sherwin Williams! I did not make these up! I'm therefore not responsible for any lost brain activity.
On the other hand, I will point out that names like Fluttershy and Cheerilee are almost as cutesy and silly, but we're so used to hearing them that it doesn't occur to us anymore.
Apple Gold... I like it. Into the fic with thee!
1031321
On the third hand, they don't have a rather unfortunate double meaning)
1031336
Well given that the color is light purple, I'd say they intended love and lavender.
Cinnamon Sprinkle, Snapdragon, and Harvest Moon are so mine
1031342
The results we get often don't quite match what we intended)
But yes, it most likely is 'love+lavender'. But, well, as the name of generic background/OC pony it doesn't quite fit. It raises questions. Of course, you could spin both meanings for added characterization in the story and it would be quite interesting. As long as unnecessary angst is avoided)
I'm definitely going to be making use of this list, as well (after I've printed it off, that is), as I have veritable plethora of OCs in need of names. The members of my Great Deer Folk Tribe, especially.
Quick question, though: can we use the same name and/or names that other members have claimed, or will claim fir their characters? Just askin', ya understand.
1031444
Personally, I don't see why not. I mean, I posted the list for anyone to use, and even I didn't make up these names- they're just paint colors. So no one has any rights to these names, other than maybe Sherwin Williams.
If you're worried about offending, you can PM the person, but I intended them to be something anyone can use.
... I really like Leatherleaf. I might use that if I ever write a pony story and it has OCs in it.
1031473Okay, that's cool.
And you're probably right about the Sherwin Williams thing.
And I can do that. I haven't really named any of my Deer Folk OCs (or some of my other Pony ones, either) beyond their High Chief, Runningwind, his LifeMate, High Chieftess Fallingleaf, the members of their immediate family (their two sons, their eldest daughter, and their adopted daughter (my Pegasus Pony OC, Wolf), and a few others. So I can work with anyone who snags a name that I was looking at.
But shoot! there's so many of them there that I don't really foresee any problems.
This was such a wonderful idea that I wanted to chase it a little further. I don't really want to go writing a blog post with my own list, though, because it feels deeply unoriginal and an awful lot of my blog posts wind up just being elaborations on your ideas anyway – and because I need to write more stories and blog less, or I'm going to run the risk of becoming primarily a Fimfiction blogger...
But I figured I'd at least share one of the things this blog got me to dig up: Valspar Paint's online color selector. I suspect there'll probably be some name overlap, but I spent a little time checking it out, and it seems like your theory holds pretty well there, too. More pony naming resources always strikes me as a good thing.
ETA: So far, my favorite from that site (though unless you're a madperson, it should be off your OC name candidates list) probably has to be 1010-6, "Hotel St. Francis Sangre de Cristo"
Actually, y'know what, if you want to use that one for a pony name, more power to you. I'd probably read at least 3000 words of that, just on principle.
ETAA: Seriously, it's a six word name. 3000 words isn't too hard when you can knock off 300 of them just calling the character by name 50 times.
1031548 That's an excellent name source for pastel ponies!
1031548 In microcosm. 300 words, and 6 uses of the name. This is clearly doable.
This is what happens when I'm bored in the afternoon...
Hotel St. Francis Sangre de Cristo was an earth pony with a truly unfortunate name. The one time she'd had the courage to ask her parents why they chose it, they'd spun a rather incredible tale about a vacation to Ponyville, a pink frizzy-haired gypsy baker, and a peculiar rant about something called "word limits". It all sounded like gibberish to Hotel St. Francis Sangre de Cristo, but she hadn't been well-disposed to appreciate her parents' reasoning in the first place.
After her parents died in a freak housekeeping accident, though, Hotel St. Francis Sangre de Cristo found her thoughts drifting back to that story time and again. She had no siblings, no other family, so she seriously considered changing her name and moving to a new town – trying to start her life afresh without her perpetual burden. It was awfully hard to make friends when everypony had a learned aversion to greeting you on the street.
"How are you today, Hotel St. Francis Sangre de Cristo?"
She couldn't blame them. Who wants to spend more time muddling through somepony's name than saying hello?
She considered changing her name, but the freak housekeeping accident in which her parents had died also destroyed her home and all her worldly possessions, so for Hotel St. Francis Sangre de Cristo, her bothersome name was also her last link to her parents. And she did love them, despite the disservice they'd done her. It would be ungrateful of her, to abandon the sole thing they had left to her.
At the end of the day, that was why Hotel St. Francis Sangre de Cristo resolved to take her own trip to Ponyville. Perhaps she could find this mysterious gypsy baker herself – if such a pony really existed. And unravel this nonsense about "word limits".
There are a lot of good ones in there. I should mention, though, that 'Minty' is already taken by Hasbro; she was a toy in several generations, and a major character in the G3 show.
It's kind of fun that paint has some crazy names
Knubby Wool. Knubby Wool. That is a freaking fantastic name for a pony. I'm guessing that's some shade of white, yes?
The one thing I want in life is for a paint company to come out with the color "white". Just white. If that happens then I can die happy.
I have a pony named Shimmer!
And once again I come back to this list for another story. I'm so glad this exists.
Genius!
Just got linked here via Bradel. WHY CAN'T I FAVORITE BLOG POSTS? I'm going to have to save this to Delicious and hope I haven't forgotten it by the next time it comes in handy.
Looked over this list for an OC name.
I giggled.
3122159
That could be the name of the AI magipunk pony Twilight makes to help the CMC when she's away. The only problem with that for a story is deciding which problems there are with that.
3122677
I approve.
Oh mah gah.
