AK Yearling or Daring Do?

I personally think Daring Do is her real name, because it seems more realistic to the show and her cutie mark is not for writing.

Yeah, I would go with Daring Do as her birth name, since that's a more "pony" name. A.K. Yearling might just be a pen name, or she may have had it legally changed to thwart suspicions.

Quite honestly, I think that Daring Do is her real name, and that the A.K. Yearling one is her author's pen-name.

And then, too, there's what you said, FanficFanPony:

and her cutie mark is not for writing.

Very well put.
From what I've seen of her cutie mark, both on both episodes of the show that she's been in so far (and please, MLP writers, please bring her back for another one (or two) before the show is over!), and in all the screencaps of her, her cutie mark is a compass rose, not a quill and piece of paper, or some similar writing implement.

Like a typewriter.

4624043

Amy Keating Rogers says that A. K. Yearling is the pony's real name. Then again, she didn't write any episodes where Daring Do played a major role. On the other hand, Dave Polsky, the writer of "Daring Don't," doesn't know which name is real.

Personally, I think A. K. Yearling is her real name. Daring Do is the name she made for herself in her books and is also the name she prefers to be called if other ponies discover her identity.

It's kinda like how Indiana Jones' real name is Henry Walton Jones, Jr., yet he prefers "Indiana," to the point where even the audience didn't know his real name until the third film. When his father revealed the origin behind "Indiana," it was…embarrassing to say the least. To a lesser extent, it's also similar to Nathan Drake; in Uncharted 3, we learn that may not be his actual name.

Now I know the name "A. K. Yearling" doesn't have anything to do with adventuring, but several ponies have names that don't fit their cutie marks or jobs. What the heck does "Babs Seed" have to do with a pair of scissors? What does the name "Maud Pie" have to do with rocks? Judging by Rarity's cutie mark, she'd very well be a miner, but instead, she's a seamstress.

Furthermore, we don't know what "A. K." stands for. What if that part of her name has something to do with adventuring?

4624194
4624130

I still agree.

4624448

While that is a good argument, I'd have to point out that not only do her enemies call her Daring Do, but so does everypony else. Especially her enemies, who probably wouldn't care if she was revealed. I think AK Yearling is very much a pen name.

4624043 Daring Do, from all accounts A.K. Yearling is a pen name she created and adopted so as to avoid detection by her enemies.

4624462

4624462

Well, even after we learned Indiana Jones' real name, we still call him Indiana. Even after I learned that Lewis Carroll's real name is Charles Dodgson, I still called him Lewis Carroll.

Maybe the same phenomenon occurred with Daring Do. Daring Do's enemies first associated her with the name "Daring Do," since that's the name she made for herself. Later, when they connected A. K. Yearling with Daring Do, they had gotten used to the latter name, so they continued to use it.

In the case of the Mane Six, they saw A. K. Yearling reveal herself as Daring Do and not the other way around. Their thought process associated A. K. Yearling with Daring Do and caused the former name to be pushed into the background while the latter name took precedence.

I'll admit: my headcanon is based on a DeviantART comment that may or may not be canon, and Occam's Razor would favor Daring Do as the real name….

4624130 's "name change" proposal is actually pretty good. I'm going to see if I can "steal" it….

That is, if he doesn't mind….

4625067

Really, you can use the idea. I'm not exactly emotionally attached to it.

Daring Do, and... her being in the real Equestria still doesn't prove she hasn't just came from the book. In that case, she would have had the right to rename herself.