Yesterday we reported on the newly established Icelandic Horse Naming Committee, that prohibited the name “Mósan” for a three-year-old Icelandic horse. In an interview with Fréttablaðið, WorldFeng project manager Jón Baldur Lorange explains that the committee was put in place as a necessary evil.
According to Jón, although most horse owners name their horses decent Icelandic names, a few do not. “The names aren’t supposed to be smutty or an acronym and with any disrespectful meaning. We had to intervene once people had started naming their horses like that.”
This prompted FIEF, the International Federation of Icelandic Horse Associations, to accept a stricter protocol for horse names. Jón reckons that 99.9% agree on sticking with Icelandic naming traditions. “Of course horses have been given various names over the years and it ends with rules being put in place due to all sorts of names being given. This is why WorldFeng put a Name Bank in place in which the names are read in Icelandic in order for the pronunciation to be heard. We are doing this to preserve our language,”
Jón also cites foreigners as a major reason for this new rule. “They don’t want to buy Icelandic horses with foreign names. Except for the Dutch, they’ve been somewhat against it. A few Icelanders as well.”
The Horse Naming Committee, which has a total of two members, denies names such as “Mósan” due to the fact that the name is an article, which is a word that combines with a noun and thus conflicts with Icelandic grammar rules.
