I didn't create this topic as flamebait, not even as a rant. I'm a latecomer to the Pony fanbase, and I never really had the chance to get "attached" to the fan-names like Lyra, Blues and the like before Hasbro released ponies very similiar to them in the surprise bags. Would people really care if I use the name Hasbro names because that's the closest we've got to official names? I've been part of many fandoms in the past, so I've learned not to get too attached to fanon, and some fandoms takes their fanon pretty seriously. I remember the big mess when Blaise Zabini was revealed to be a black guy in canon instead of a white raven-haired girl which was fanon in the Harry Potter fandom for example. I do know from lurking that people still use the fanon names on this site, and lurking on Deviantart makes me think treating Heartstrings and Lyra as the same character would get me strung up to dry.
Never really bothered with Fanon and Canon(?) Names of the ponies. I just call them whatever I feel like calling them.
In my mind, all of this is a personal preference. Since "Friendship is Magic" has such a huge fanbase and most of the names did not come around until after they had been given fan names, I tend to go with the fan names. If the fans had never come up with names, there's a good chance that Hasbro would have let some of the background ponies go forever unnoticed; the "fanon" names are more legit to me for that reason alone. I know the fan names better than I know Hasbro's names, anyway. As for the Heartstrings issue, I know for a fact that "Heartstrings" is Hasbro's name for the pony everyone in the fanbase knows as "Lyra." If people really claim that Lyra and Heartstrings different characters then they really need to go here and see the truth for themselves.
I prefer show accurate names. Less confusion in parlay with the younger demographic. If it ever occurs.
I usually side with canon over fanon in every situation, but honestly I prefer the fanon names in this one. For 1, they came first. Now, that doesn't give them some divine right over canon, but it does mean they carry more gravitas within the community, given their superior age and usage. The fandom is also more connected to them, as not only are they the ones that actually come up with them, but they have also been used more. I mean, music, animations, images, all forms of media have incorporated the names. Jackle App has made a song about Lyra and Bon-Bon, Glaze has one about Carrot Top, we have a DJ called Berry Punch. My usual response to this would be 'irrelevant, canon is always priority'. However, in this case, I'm simply going to say I don't care, as I prefer the fanon names. They're only background ponies anyway, so it's hardly altering the very basis of the storyline. In addition, the fandom put some effort in to forge relevant names for these characters. Hasbro put absolutely nothing into the toy line which included them. They just took an image of the character, recoloured a seemingly random existing mode to match it then slapped a name on it. That was incredibly lazy, and I was pretty disappointed. Not at Hasbro in general, just at that particular move. Besides, the fandom names are catchier and somewhat more creative, while still remaining relevant.
Personally, I don't think the toys should effect fanon that is related to the show. They're still technically nameless in the show's canon, so I don't see why some people are so mad about the whole thing. Besides, the toy that's clearly "supposed" to be Trixie is called something else entirely last time I checked (can't remember what it was, though). ^This pretty much sums up why it doesn't really bother me. XD It is kind of disappointing though. Is there something keeping them from using the fanon names? A legal issue of some sort? I know that those working on the show can't read fanfics, but apparently they're also forbidden from using fanon names, too? I'm asking because I haven't seen anyone really explain this...
Thanks for the replies so far. Glad to see this fandom is indeed much more relaxed than say, Star Wars or Harry Potter's fandoms, two I used to be part of and two very elitist fandoms. From what I've seen so far, its a case-by-case basis. Some are outright clever, like Dr. Hooves, he's not going to have a better name. Others are okay, like Derpy Hooves. Others, like Lyra, just sounds too much like a fan name to me, and her 'official' name Heartstrings is much more clever, same with Blues and Noteworthy. Blues is rather generic, while Noteworthy isn't. My best guess is because those working on the shows, nor the fans, do not own the rights to the MLP franchise, Hasbro does. To them, the character the fans named Lyra was created with the name Heartstrings, and was always Heartstrings. The whole Derpy Hooves taking over Ditzy Doo seems to be the exception, not the rule. That's just my take on the situation, since I don't sit in the board meetings.
I second that. Lyra or Heart strings, I like Heartstrings more, but I really don't care what they're called.
I must admit that it's a breath of fresh air to hear people here talk about how this isn't really a big deal at all. AlexPuma told me all about another community online that got into a huge flame war over this matter. Of course, I never expected that behavior here but I'm elated that everybody here is relaxed about it just the same. There have been some good points made here. In the end, I do like the "fanon" names better but I'll use whatever names seem to be the most commonly-used in the community I'm at.
I'm quite cool with this matter, as long I know that lyra and Heartstrings is the same pony, like Berry Punch and Berryshine, if I'm not familiar, I'll ask politely.
I myself prefer the old fanon names, not only because I've been a brony and a background pony aficionado long before the Wave 3 background ponies became known. First and foremost, Hasbro's toy department proved themselves to be very unreliable namegivers several times already. Wave 1 had three ponies modeled after background ponies. Flower Wishes is a Pinkie Pie model repainted to resemble a pony called by her name Daisy on screen by Twilight Sparkle (Bridle Gossip). As far as I remember, the episode came out before the toys. Roseluck is an Applejack model repainted to resemble a pony called by her name Rose on screen by Daisy (same episode). One could say that Rose is short for Roseluck in this case, but it's still different. Lemon Hearts got to keep her blind bag name because she wasn't popular enough to have a generally accepted fan name when Wave 1 came out, and she was never named on screen, and because this name fit the general fan naming style. Hasbro's toy department finally lost the rest of their credibility when they made a Wave 4 pony who looks a lot like The Great and Powerful Trixie and named her Lulamoon. Mind you that the name The Great and Powerful Trixie is spoken out on screen during Boast Busters about over 9000 times, mostly by Trixie herself. That said, although it does take some getting used to when bronies who joined the herd after late autumn 2011 use the blind bag names because they got them from the MLP Wiki, and because they were never exposed to the old fan names, at least I try to tolerate it. I don't go around and "correct" them and tell them that the names are Lyra and Carrot Top and not Heartstrings and Golden Harvest, because that'd make me not a bit better than those who are all, "Hasbro named them Heartstrings and Golden Harvest, so it's canon now, the fan names have been proven wrong, now shut up and deal with it." I mean, I could also try to convince the vast majority of bronies that it's Ditzy Doo and not Derpy Hooves, but I don't. What I cannot tolerate, though, are the aforementioned bronies who lecture all those who are still using the fan names and accuse them of being wrong and stubbornly so. This is when my defence mode kicks in. If they try to force Wikipedia's reliability criteria upon the whole fanon like they were forced upon the MLP Wiki, I ask them to think about the general reliability of a source which both makes Celestia pink and Spike quadrupedal and gives a secondary semi-antagonist character a new name. As for information from wikis for newcomers, not everything is lost yet. The (probably recently launched) My Little Brony wiki has a list of ponies unaffected by Hasbro's toy department. Berry Punch and Berryshine are a wholly different issue again because Hasbro used Berry Punch's colours and cutie mark on a unicorn. That said, a Berry Punch pegasus appears in two episodes of season 1.
