@Ranch  
Fair enough.

@BigBadSeed
 
With all the fuss about not calling him Link, I decided to call him Hitch (Haylian). I thesaurused the word link and hitch is a synonym. And I mean…you hitch horses to stuff. So there.

@Ranch  
I’m intrigued. Explain yourself please.

Personally I think I want to call him Hitch.

@Amber
 
I’m liking Hookshot as a name. But Link is also a fine name in and of itself. It just means he connects one thing to another thing. For all we know he is a builder or a black smith. Linked Horshoes maybe?

@Amber  
I actually like Quarter Hearts, since it ties to the cutie mark. We can’t prove by this guy’s design alone that he’s a “link” to anything.  
Plus, there’s no creativity on our part in just calling him Link.

Alright then, seems we have a little discussion going on. But I’m going to say that “Link” can pass off as a pony name, since it’s literally “something that connects one thing with another”. However, it doesn’t mean that it has to be that name.
 
There are alternatives that can still hold the reference. Quarter Hearts, Rupee Heart and even Hookshot (as one pointed out early here) can work as well.
 
 
@Background Pony #7C13  

 
Not named “Zelda”, hypothetically speaking. Unlike Link, Zelda is an all proper human name i.e Zelda Fitzgerald.
 
@BigBadSeed  

 
Which is why his official name is Time Turner and his nickname is “Doctor”. Same with Vinyl Scratch and “DJPon3”

Link is a Quarter Pony!

@Marvelous TK  
Okay. Besides what it could mean, what do you think it means?

@BigBadSeed  
Noooooot in the slightest? I’m saying ‘Link’ can mean lots of things? I’m saying it’s filled with potential meaning? I’m saying that there is absolutely no reason it wouldn’t be a valid pony name because of all its potential meaning? So basically the exact opposite of that?

@Marvelous TK  
So, earlier you were implying that his name had meaning…
 
@Marvelous TK  

 
…and now you’re saying it doesn’t need meaning?

@BigBadSeed  
True, what I did was posit that your question is irrelevant. I gave examples where a pony’s name isn’t always straightforward, and examples where names ‘meaning something to the characters in the show’ doesn’t even always happen in the show. I didn’t, last time, mention that you’re focusing on one potential meaning of the name, even though in the post I first made I gave four different examples of different ‘links’, so the pony himself doesn’t even have to be a ‘link to’ anything, for it to be a valid pony name. It’s not a good question. I didn’t have to answer it. I just destroyed it.
 
Also? You’re totally dodging. This started with you saying that ‘Link’ isn’t a pony name at all. With the dozen ways the word ‘link’ is used, you have not made any case that it doesn’t work as a pony name. What, exactly, disqualifies it? Besides your inability to look past a single definition of the word, I mean.

@Marvelous TK  
You didn’t answer my question.

@BigBadSeed  
Uh, it could mean about a billion things. I mean, what does ‘Rarity’ mean to the characters in the show? ‘Twilight Sparkle’? Freaking ‘Pinkie Pie’? They kind of defined their own names, more than the name defining them. And with as many types of ‘links’ as there are, there’s so many ways for it to work as a pony name.
 
And I mean don’t even get me started on Luna, that name is associated with the moon virtue of a Roman goddess, and ‘lunar’ and whatnot come from said goddess too, that’s gong to mean jack-all to ponies. In the context of the show, Luna by default is an empty meaningless name due to its heavy reliance on human mythology, and would only share that connection to the moon on virtue of Princess Luna herself. So don’t even try show-context arguments, the show’s already tearing those down.
 
Seriously, just take the Zelda games completely out of the equation, forget there even is a cameo here, that the Zelda games even exist let alone the character. That character doesn’t exist. Poof. Gone. Now, without that character existing, tell me why ‘Link’ doesn’t work as a pony name. That was, after all, what you said, ‘Link isn’t a pony name’. I am challenging you, right here right now, not about anything Zelda, but why ‘Link isn’t a pony name’.

@Marvelous TK  
I get that it means something to us because we’ve played Zelda, but what would the name “Link” mean to the characters in the show? What is this pony a link to?

@BigBadSeed  
You kiddin’? Link doesn’t mean anything? Check it, it’s a link to a link. Made the link yet? And that’s totes not coincidence, even, Link was named because he was your ‘link’ into the game. So, yeah.

@WanderingPony  
Doc wasn’t a Doctor Who reference from the beginning. That was projected onto him by the fans and picked up by the show.

@RIG
 
It’s a lot like Time Turner/Doctor Whooves, who’s clearly a Doctor Who homage. We don’t call him “Doctor Who Pony”, but his name certainly plays off what he is and the cutie mark on his flank.

Joey Jo-Jo Junior Shabadoo, imo.
 
How about Hookshot

@Marvelous TK  
Name a pony with a name that doesn’t mean something.

@BigBadSeed  
… it kind of is, though

@RIG  
Link’s not a pony name, silly.

Do we REALLY need to give him a name? is fucking Link.

You know, I’m starting to warm up to the name “Quarter Hearts.”

@Riptyde  
Dangit, all the Ocroroks are just giving me rupees! I need a heart dammit!