I'm not asking for names here, I'm asking for opinions, both your own and those you've heard, about human-like nicknames for Pony OCs.

Ponies simply don't have human-like names - that was evident from the start and explicitly made clear with the Equestria Girls movies, where despite being apparently human (or 'human', at least), every named character either had the same name as their Equestrian counterpart, or a name that fell into a similar pattern. However, ponies do have nicknames - and there are only so many sound combinations available in the English language to produce those. A pony, even one with a distinctly non-human proper name, may well end up having a human-like nickname simply because of the combinations involved.

I bring this up because I'm working on a story, and have ended up realizing that, in trying to provide short-form nicknames for them to call each other, at least two of my characters have human-like ones - an earth pony mare named Emerald Shimmer ('Emma'), and a unicorn mare named Golden Tones ('Toni'). And I have seen at least one story get hammered for using human-style names (proper names, in that instance, not nicknames) for some of the OCs involved.

I'm not likely to change my writing habits based on this; I've gotten too used to thinking of the characters this way. But I am interested in knowing how many people would find this to be something that would break their sense of immersion, given that that could lead to their not finishing the story, or choosing not to read others I may write.

Your thoughts?

5669455
Applejack's nickname, AJ, sounds human-like, but I've never seen anyone complain about that.

5669455 The gryphons (or griffons, as the show writers spell it) use human-esque names that opt times start with the letter G. And we also have Harry the bear. I speculate that human-like names can happen to a pony (my best example would be Pipsqueak), but because of the cutie mark-centric culture and race often playing a part in foal naming (Fluttershy, Featherweight, Open/Clear Skies), it's... well, a rarity (pun intended.)

Then we have the background characters whose names are interchangeable, and shout-outs in pony form to other franchises (Harry Trotter, Quarter Hearts...)

I tend to avoid human-esque names for pony OCs, unless I'm doing a crossover with ponyfications present. In which case, I use the human name, or a human name with a pony surname, or a false name for a human-turned-pony based on their cutie mark, if they have one.

But that's just me.