What is the name of Don Quixote's horse?

Don Quixote's horse is named Rocinante. The aging, underfed horse is the faithful mount of Alonso Quixano after he reinvents himself as the knight-errant Don Quixote.

The name is a joke with layers of meaning. Before becoming Rocinante, the horse was merely a worn-out farm animal, or a “rocín.” Don Quixote gives him a grander name suggesting that he has become the foremost of ordinary horses—“rocín” transformed into something more noble.

Rocinante is not a powerful warhorse like the steeds of medieval romances Don Quixote reads. He is weak, thin, and often struggles physically, which makes the contrast between his rider’s heroic self-image and reality part of Cervantes’s comedy. Don Quixote’s beloved lady is Dulcinea del Toboso, while his squire Sancho Panza travels with a donkey commonly called Rucio.

Rocinante is sometimes confused with famous horses from other traditions, such as Pegasus, Bucephalus, or Babieca. Those animals belong to Greek mythology or other legendary and historical stories, not Cervantes’s novel.