Names originated from the popular children's story - 'Twas the Night Before Christmas - supposedly written by Clement Clarke Moore in 1823. However recently in 2000 an English professor has proved that the original Christmas rhyme was written by Major Henry Livingston, Jr. (1748-1828) in 1807 and called - Account of a Visit from St. Nicholas. Moore got credited with the nursery rhyme after an acquaintance published it in a newspaper. Over the years he made many alterations to it, which explains why there are various spellings of the reindeer names - Donner means thunder in German and Donder means thunder in Dutch.
Below lists the names of santa's reindeer in several versions of the rhyme.
Most Popular Names |
Other Names | Original Names |
---|---|---|
Dasher | ||
Dancer | ||
Prancer | ||
Vixen | ||
Comet | ||
Cupid | ||
Donner | Donder | Dunder |
Blitzen | Bliksem | Blixem |
Rudolf was not part of the original reindeer but came later from the song - Rudolf the red nose reindeer
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Here is the source of the historical data