STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
Also this weekend, Americans have a chance to get their brains around a bunch of creative names - names of horses in the Kentucky Derby. Competitors this year include Itsaknockout, Ocho Ocho Ocho, Keen Ice and the favorite - American Pharoah.
RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:
If naming a prize-winning horse sounds like fun, hold your horses. The process is pretty bureaucratic.
CLAIRE NOVAK: If you're an owner of a racehorse, you submit the name that you would like the horse to be named to The Jockey Club, and they have their lists of qualifications.
MONTAGNE: That's Claire Novak. She's the online features editor of the Blood-Horse magazine. She says The Jockey Club, which governs horse racing, has quite a stable of rules for naming horses.
NOVAK: You can't have your horse named after a living person unless approval has been given to you from that person in writing, and you have to submit that to The Jockey Club. They shouldn't have a vulgar or obscene meaning or have any types of offensive nature to any religious or political groups.
INSKEEP: The name also cannot exceed 18 characters, although I think that's enough to have a horse named Renee Montagne. Renee Montagne coming down the stretch. Of course, some owners still, with those limitations, managed to get creative.
NOVAK: With names that are just a little bit naughty, perhaps. You had the filly Fiftyshadesofhay. And then we have My Wife Knows Everything and The Wife Doesn't Know. Those two actually ended up in a race together.
(SOUNDBITE OF HORSE RACE)
UNIDENTIFIED ANNOUNCER: My Wife Knows Everything, The Wife Doesn't Know, they're one-two, of course they are. My Wife Knows Everything in front. To the outside, The Wife Doesn't Know. My Wife Knows Everything, The Wife Doesn't Know...
MONTAGNE: Novak says there are some 450,000 active names registered with The Jockey Club. Tomorrow, one of those names will go down in history.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "THE RACE IS ON")
KEITH JONES: (Singing) Well, the race is on and here comes pride up the backstretch. Heartaches are goin' to the inside. My tears are holdin' back... Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.