What is the name of the horse in the song Jingle Bells?

Question

I was asked and I cannot come up with a solid answer.

Answer 1

the horse is unnamed

despite reports that the lyrics are "Bob's tail" - the wikipedia entry for the song including the original 1857 lyrics was recently edited from "bobtail" to "Bob's tail", but has since been reverted.

the original 1857 sheet music has "bob tail"
http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/ampage?collId=sm1820&fileName=sm2/sm1857/620000/620520/mussm620520.db&recNum=0&itemLink=r?ammem/mussm:@filreq(@field(NUMBER+@band(sm1857+620520))+@field(COLLID+sm1820))&linkText=0
however this edition is inconsistent in its rendering of multisyllabic words across notes. "to night" and "up sot" in the first edition are also usually rendered "tonight" and "upsot" and there is a note in the alt-usage-english faq that states the facsimile of the 1859 second edition uses "bobtail".
http://alt-usage-english.org/excerpts/fxjingle.html

there are also various claims it should be sendered "Bobtail" making this the proper name of either the horse or sleigh. this contention is not supported by the evidence of the early editions either.

Answer 2

As far as I know, it has no name... at least one not mentioned in the song. The phrases referring to the horse are "one horse open sleigh", "bells on bob-tail ring", "the horse was lean and lank" and "misfortune seemed his lot".

None of those are names, just descriptions. Bob-tail is referring to a short-cut tail, as longer tails could get caught in the harness and wheels.

Answer 3

We just call him Bob
From "bob-tail". People who have horses that are in commercial service (pulling buggies and sleighs) often cut the tail off short to keep it clean and not have the tail swishing around. That is called bob-tailing a horse and owners would call it a "bob-tail nag" instead of horse.

Answer 4

It's Bobtail, "bells on Bobtail ring," etc. Most people don't realize that Bobtail is the horse. They read/sing it as "bells on bob-tail ring"