Dogs do, and answer to them. Cats (unless they’re just fucking with us, which is always a possibility with cats) don’t. What about horses?
Let me put it this way: if you were called Footstepsinthesand, or Hoist The Flag, or Beef or Salmon, would you answer to it? :dubious:
And there’s worse.
Racehorses have “stable names” though. You wouldn’t call it by its “official” name when working with it in the yard.
There are probably some, but not in my experience. They do, however, recognize their owners from long distances. What I’ve heard is that although they probably don’t recognize faces, they do pick up on sublte nuances in movements that they associate with their owners. And, of course, the smells. Also, in stables where you have multiple owners of multiple horses, I think they’re pretty good at picking up on the sound that their owner’s vehicle makes, and often come running up when they hear it, knowing that they might get some kind of treat.
Not just race horses. It’s pretty common for a horse to have a ‘barn name’ that is different–sometimes greatly different–from the name registered on its papers.
Depends on the name. We had a retired thoroughbred whose registered name was Marflin, and that’s what we called her. OTOH, an Arabian mare was Bint Ibn Talal and we called her Lolly. The folks who owned her before us called her Binty which we felt was like calling her “Junior”* which we felt was a bit demeaning but the horse didn’t care either way.
*The literal translation is Daughter Son Talal, i.e. Talal’s granddaughter.
My cats know their names, whether they actually choose to acknowledge that at any given time is a toss up.
I don’t think my horses know their barn names, but each certainly knows when I’m talking to them specifically, even though I may be across the field. I can’t describe it really, but it’s interesting to see.
Back when I had a horse, he definitely recognised me when I was walking towards the paddock, but I couldn’t say that he knew his own name.
Ed does.
I think some do, yes, but not all. One thing to consider, though, is that the average horse is sold several times during its life, and each of those transfers of ownership may result in a name change. Add to that the fact that we generally don’t spend as much time calling our horses by name as we do our dogs and cats, and I’m not surprised most of them don’t “get it” when it comes to names.
That’s Mr. Ed to you good fellow.
There are five horses on my mom’s farm right now. One will consistently look at you if you call his name, one will do it sometimes, and the other three don’t seem to know or care.
He wouldn’t talk to you anyway. Not in person. Though he certainly would prank call you.
Unlike cats, and maybe horses, dogs seem to grasp the concept of a name without specific training, and they seem to understand that people and other animals have names also. A cat can be taught to respond to a name, and so can many other animals, but that’s not the same as showing an understanding of the concept the way dogs do. My exposure to horses was limited some riding in my youth, but I don’t recall horses responding to names in particular, although they seemed to recognize voices. Horses do respond well to hand signals, and dogs do as well. I don’t think there’s a great difference in intelligence between horses and dogs, but the dogs may be better suited to recognizing language an names than a horse does. Cats are inscrutable, so there’s no way to tell with them.
My purely anecdotal experience as a past owner of both - there is no significant cognitive difference between the two. Both need to be taught their names, both will respond to their names, both will recognize the names of other individuals as being distinct from themselves.
The only concrete difference I’ve noticed is responsiveness and how quickly they learn. Dogs are inherently more pack-oriented and with most/many breeds are eager to please the alpha, aka “you.” So they learn social clues faster and respond to orders more readily, at least on average.
I’ve no idea if they recognize their names but mine will come running when I call them in for night time feeding. No idea if they’re all “hey human is calling me” or “that noise means food now” but they come all the same.
Apologies, I was unclear. I was referring to cats and dogs. I have little experience with horses.
Horses are much less tuned in to vocalizations than dogs or even cats. Despite what you see on TV, they are generally very quiet animals and for the most part vocalize only under stress under circumstances of emotion.** They are VERY good at picking up subtle body language, which is why they seem to know when you are out there to catch them, and why Clever Hans was so clever.
Interestingly, feral domestic cats don’t meow at each other to talk, unless it’s a full on territorial spat. The chatty chirps and meows and yowls are something that’s triggered by humans. Among themselves body language is explicit enough.
Dogs are quite vocal, and I think that’s why they learn voice commands relatively easily. They will learn silent commands faster though, if the human is careful to use exactly the same motion/position/signal every time. We tend to be much sloppier with hand signals than we are with verbal cues.
**(Neighing loudly if their buddies are out of sight, a nicker of excitement at mealtime or when a buddy comes back, maybe some grunts of effort over a jump or when working hard. Not much else in day to day life. Stallion/mare and mare/foal talk is another thing entirely)
(sorry, got carried away, I love animal training and behavior stuff 
)
My cats always knew their names.
I think dogs more readily grasp the concept of names and can use them to identify others, not just understand theirs is distinct. They also will respond to their name from people they don’t know. I don’t know if dogs learn their name by grasping the concept first, or just like any other animal associate it through repitition. As you say, the dogs may just be a little faster at it because of their social orientation. And of course you never know what cats know or don’t know. I’ve been successful in training cats through repitition to do things cats don’t ordinarily pick up on, but the main difference there may just be the motivation thing. Cats certainly aren’t stupid.
My dad’s (since departed dog), a not particularly bright lab/jebel dog* mix, understood names well enough to go find the person you were referring to in the house if you said, “where’s X?”
*A jebel dog is a not-very-well-documented feral breed that’s common in Oman.