On Twitter tonight, Carly Kaiser (of Horses, History, Humor) posted a fantastic flurry of rejected and changed horse names, and several others got in on the action.  This set up the question — what sorts of interesting name changes have Curlin’s progeny had?

It turns out, Palace Malice was not the only name submitted for Curlin’s most successful son to date.  What would it have been like to cheer home either Stones or Perret in the Belmont or the Met Mile?

Of course, Palace Malice is not the only one with an entertaining paper trail attached to his name.

A few fans of The Godfather have named Curlin babies along the way.  Alas, the Jockey Club would not take the Cannoli as a name for eventual stakes winner Blue Violet:

…but, the rejection of a less specific reference to the movie left open the chance for a pun that really should not have taken until Curlin’s sixth crop to emerge.

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Whoever decided not to finish this name change application officially salvaged the best possible name for a daughter of Perfectly Campbell:

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On the other hand, fans of The Offspring (or nineties music in general) may not love this name change very much:

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Speaking of the 1990s, there is a certain “dammit, Beavis!” quality to both the rejected name — and the granted name — for this son of Curlin.

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Horses named after the Chicago Blackhawks have been all over the place over the last few years: Midnight Hawk, Coach Q, Captain Serious, Captain Toews, Toews, Kaner…and there may have been another one had this horse’s potential names been listed in the opposite order:

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So, if you want to name a horse after a person without actually asking them, all you need to do is use their common first name instead of their uncommon surname:

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Though Inmyfathersimage was the first name submitted for this member of Curlin’s first crop, the name “Racehorse” would have had an obvious charm.

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All data and screenshots are from the Jockey Club Interactive Registry.