Apr 29, 2023 By Karen Mansfield 4 min read

Dontforgettoboogie. Rockabye Fashion. Kitty Wampus.

Those aren’t names you’d choose for your dog or cat: It’s a mouthful to say, “Such a good boy, Rockabye Fashion!”

They are, however, perfectly acceptable names for racehorses.

All three standardbred horses ran recently at The Meadows Racetrack at Hollywood Casinos.

And Tapit Trice, Two Phil’s, Derma Sotogake, and Wild On Ice are among the interestingly named thoroughbreds who will race on May 6 at Churchill Downs in the 149th Kentucky Derby.

The names might sound weird, but they actually must comply with strict naming regulations.

“There are rules and there are limitations as to what you can name a horse,” said Scott Lishia, Director of Racing at The Meadows Racetrack.

The most significant rule is the character limit: No name can have more than 18 characters, including spaces and punctuation, which is why Dontforgettoboogie, among others, must make do without spaces.

Lishia said racehorse names are submitted for approval to either The Jockey Club (the governing body for thoroughbred horses – horses that are ridden by jockeys) or the United States Trotting Association (which oversees harness racing and standardbred horses).

Most owners submit at least three names for consideration, since about 30% of first names get rejected by The Jockey Club; the USTA doesn’t approve every name, either.

Janet Collins, owner and manager of Amulet Farm Equine Rehab and Conditioning Center, Belle Vernon, submits at least three names to the USTA for consideration.

The most common reason for a name to be rejected is that the racehorse name already exists, it is too similar in spelling or pronunciation to an active or already-used name, or it is suggestive, vulgar, or in poor taste.

The Jockey Club – which gets about 40,000 entries per year and has about 400,000 names in existence at once, according to the Pennsylvania Horse Racing Association – and the USTA don’t always catch questionable names, however.

Lishia recalled a horse named Bodacious Tatas who raced in the 1980s, “and everybody said, ‘How did that name get through?'”

Other rules: Names can’t consist entirely of initials or numbers, end in horse-related terms like “filly” or “colt” or numerical designations like “2nd” or “3rd.” Horses can’t be named after living people unless written permission to use their name is submitted.

The Jockey Club gives some names “permanent” status, meaning they can never be registered for any other horses. The most famous and winningest racehorses, such as California Chrome and Man o’ War, have earned permanent status.

It’s common in horse circles to use parts of the name of the sire (the father) and/or the dam (the mother), or to incorporate the farm name into the overall name.

Collins, for example, named four of the five foals of one of her favorite horses, I’m Justa Lady – a top-level trotting mare who once won 17 of 32 starts in a season, and equaled her career best mile in her final year of racing at age 11 – with some variation of her name. The exception was I’m Justa Lady’s last foal, a colt who was born at the farm on St. Patrick’s Day. He was dubbed Sir Patrick of Amulet.

Owners enjoy getting creative with names.

“We sort of name them for a lot of reasons: their attitudes and personality, their arrival day, the farm name,” said Collins. “A lot of people try to carry over lineage. I think in our world, standardbred, it’s more personal preference.”

Among the other fun names bestowed on horses: Odor in the Court, Waikikamukau, Lil E. Tee, and Alphabet Soup.

“Some names are easer for race callers,” said Lishia. “The ones I find tough are the ones with five or six words run together as one word. You have to figure out where one word ends and the other begins.”

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