Oh, my Celestia...

There's a minor fad in internet-stuff now to let an AI (artificial intelligence) loose on some set of data and let it come up with stuff. Often the results are pretty funny, and might give hope to those who are walking around going "Robots gonna take our jorbs." I've seen one with recipes and another with Romance Novel Titles ("His Pregnant Prince," anyone?)

But today, I found one that's right in my area of interest:

My Little Pony Names, as established by a neural network .


Some of these are pretty normal sounding: Mint Flower, Strawberry Sun, and even Cinnamon Mark seem quite reasonable names. (Mint Flower would be a white pony with a green mane; her skill would be knowing which species of plants you NEVER EVER GROW outside of a container....mint being one, of course, that will overtake an open garden if you let it).

Some are funny but might border on a joke name used in a fanfiction. My favorite of these is "Dim McColt," which I imagine as being the Patrick Star of ponies.

There are also some "tough pony" names - Cold Sting, Sunsrot, and Bitter Star could all be military, mercenary, or ninja ponies, as far as I'm concerned.

But then, like all these AI things, it takes a weird turn. And the weird names are the best. Marina Doof! Tardy Pony! (their special talent is being late?) Star Star (is that like Moon Moon - "Dammit, Star Star!").

And weirder and weirder. (My inner 12 year old says I MUST share "Raspberry Turd" with you)

And Agar Swirl, who doubtless works in a bacteriology lab.

And Princess Sweat, who is probably here to PUMP! YOU UP! (Unless Princess Sweat is when Bulk Biceps dreams, as Big Mac did, of being an alicorn)

And Flustershovel Aoetel Pakeecuand which I had to copy and paste because I'd never spell it right otherwise...

The author of the short piece hints at even more - that there are names she dare not share on a public Tumblr, but invites people to submit their e-mail addresses if they wish to know more.

I did not, because "Raspberry Turd" is about as sophomoric as I want my pony names to get.

I think Equestria Daily or somewhere needs to offer a prize for a fanfiction fleshing out the largest number of these possible, or for people creating artwork of them. (There are a few random ponies on the site to illustrate a few names, but they're heavily based on existing vectors.)

Edited to add: apparently playing around with neural networks is something Janelle Shane does a lot of, there is also a post on a neural network developing cat names, some of which are hilarious and some of which would be impossible to pronounce.