What do each of Santa's reindeer names mean?

Answer
While the names don't really "mean" anything, Moore did name them poetically to imply how special they were. In general, you can look at the names like this:
Dasher, Comet, Cupid: Names that imply speed, quickness, and flight ["Cupid" has wings].
Dancer, Prancer, Vixen: Names that imply grace and nimbleness [a "vixen" in this sense is a female fox].
Donner and Blitzen: Originally "Dunder and Blixem," the Dutch Words for "Thunder & Lightning," names that imply power and strength.
So when Clement C. Moore named the reindeer, he named them to poetically imply what the reindeer were like, flying through the night: powerful, quick, and nimble.


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.
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