Ideas for horse names?

here’s some unique ones at some barns i work at for inspiration along with my own horses since i like the names personally (as i did name them)

barn horses 

“shrimpy” shrimp and grits 

“hero” hometown hero 

“bb” brilliant beauty 

“eve” evesdropper

“coozie” cabana boy 

“darko” dark serendipity

“drip” triple shot expresso 

“chip” fish n chips 

“spook” ghost town 

“3”or “trip” triple threat 

 “oldie” vintage by design

“sassy” sassafras 

“duke” royal duke 

“kisser” lover boy 

“tiktok” hit or miss

“king” king of competition (mine)

“retro” retrograde (mine)

“gambler” high roller (mine)

but if you want to name your horse telephone i say go for it!! you could always have a nickname for it like ringer or something. but good luck with your new horse and id love to find out what you end up naming it!

my favs are Ace, Ember, Pytrone/Petrone, Poet/Poem, grace, Promise, Miraj, Eclipse, Pieces, Dice, Titan

It's good to know details about the horse, i.e., their coat, personality, breed, where they're from, etc. but for show names, I like funny phrases that are innocuously common but funny or odd and cool for a horse name. Like using the theme of a "Telephone," I'd name it something like, "Thanks For Calling." or "Talk Again Soon." Or if going with communication messages, how about "Return To Sender" or "Postage Stamp" or "Air Mail" or "Unclaimed."

For regular barn horse names, what about some old Wild West character names like, "Wyatt" or "Earp" or "Doc" or "Holiday" or "Annie" or "Oakley" or "Calamity" or "Bill"?

Or what about adventurous names like, "Ranger" or "Scout" or "Blazer" or "Leif" like 'Leif Erikson' the famous exploring Viking or like one of Columbus's ships, like, the Nina or Pinta or Santa Maria, or maybe geographical names like state or cities, like Utah, Texas, or Montana? Or London, Paris, Cleveland or Memphis?

Or like past presidents, like, Madison, Ulysses, Grant, Lincoln, Roosevelt or Kennedy?

The best one that I know off is King because a horse is not a queen, if it's a male.

I usually pick names based on color, sex, and maybe breed.  Without a description or picture of the horse I really can't give you names.

Rio ... Paco ... Silver Moon .. Jasmine's Gold ... Aces Run .. Blue Smoke ... 

Jack, Charlie, Billy, Harry, Bailey, Alfie, George, Murphy, Bobby and Paddy are the ten most popular male horse names with many of these also featuring in the top ten list overall.

As you say, there are two kinds of horse names:

(1) The registered name. This must fit the requirements of the registration authority or club. It's usually too long for the horse to understand. "And now we have Haitchjay Ryder on her horse Seventeen Letters Is Not Enough."

(2) The "barn" name. This is usually short and distinctive, one or two syllables, words that the horse can recognize. Some names are inherently bad. I knew a carriage horse named Hawk who could not understand the difference between his name and the command WALK. We have been at stables where several horses were named Sunshine. Oops!

There is a third kind of name, the word that you use in moments of great excitement. Someone told me of her childhood pony that was named STOP DAMMIT STOP.

Author J S Borthwick, who lived in Maine, had a horse named Conky Noodle. The name alone suggests inadvertent adventure. You might want to think of your horse's particular qualities. Is he calm, or stormy? The names Placido or Gusty would match. Is he fat, or pushy and intrepid? How about Gutsy? (Notice the slight difference from the prior name.)

Prunedella, Amythestia, Shalandria

So name your horse Telephone, nobody's going to stop you.  It's a horse, nobody cares what you name it.