"There's also a certain trend now for short, real words," he said. "The Queen is renowned for naming her horses sensible, quite cleverly constructed words -- like Sea Shanty."

But can a horse's name affect its performance? Is it possible to have a champion horse called Loser? Lysaght believes a horse's name can be self-prophesying -- to an extent.

"Camelot's owners reserved the name 10 years ago -- they thought it was a marvelous name but there was no horse that came up to scratch," Lysaght said.

"They wanted to wait and attach it to a really great horse who would live up to the mythical title. As it turned out, he didn't quite get there in the end."

British colt Camelot came close to fulfilling his promise, winning this year's 2,000 Guineas and Epsom Derby but failing to complete the English Triple Crown after finishing second at the St. Leger Stakes.

It's difficult to pinpoint a link between names and performance. But that still hasn't stopped horse names having an effect on punters' betting habits.

"I think it holds the most sway at something like the Grand National in Britain, where you've got a large proportion of inexpert betters," Khan said.

"You'll have lots of small bets on appealing names -- things that have a human element people can associate with or are cleverly constructed."

As for the horse's legacy, Khan puts it down to performance.

"I think the degree people feel attached to certain names is dependent on the performance of the horse -- not the other way around," he said.

So if Khan had a horse, what would he name it? "Worksop Bellyflop. It's a name that just jumped out at me when I gave a talk in Worksop, in the East Midlands, once."

It's no Camelot. But then, as Shakespeare's Juliet famously said: "What's in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet."