Cadence Versus Cadance (My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic)

Today I talk about the mess that is Cadence's (Cadance's) name spelling in My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic.

Before anyone points it out (which no-one will!), yes, my first MLP FIM fan character's name goes against what I am about to say - but that's the sort of thing you get with a first fan character! So there we are.

Some of you theoretically may have seen me write Cadence with a certain stubbornness. Okay, nobody has, but here we go anyway. Cadance: it is the one canon thing I will forever refuse to follow. Wanting to name a character after your daughter is no excuse for doing something that is not only nonsensical, but arguably world-breaking. Cadence, means something, like all pony character names do. Cadance does not. It is a word spelled wrong at best, and there are no other names like that in this universe. If there were, chances are it would be some kind of pun. It makes little enough sense to do this in the real world, let alone here with an established naming convention. 

And let’s not forget that Cadence is short for Cadenza – again, there’s an “e” in the middle, not an “a”. Cadence herself would never spell it that way. She just wouldn’t think to. And before you suggest it, Twilight Sparkle would never spell the word wrong by accident no matter how young she was, and she would also have had to have known Cadence’s full name for her to give her the nickname in the first place – which we know she didn’t. Anyone else who could have given her the nickname and its sticking (Celestia, Shining Armor etc) would also never have spelled it wrong – accidently, or on purpose. There is a brilliant webcomic about Cadence that I've seen, but even here this was a big stretch and unbelievable.

This whole thing created confusion for years – and it’s not like we all knew the reason to start with when it popped up in merchandise when everyone was already spelling it the way that made sense. It is confusing because it does not make sense. There are still people out there who don’t get it even now. Cadence’s overly long full name – if we put aside for a moment she was given it to confuse Twilight for plot reasons  – could potentially have a canon explanation – it does still actually means something after all. Cadance just can’t.