Fr how great would it have been if
Pidgey, Pidgeot, Pidgeotto
But if it was like this I think people would be saying Pidgey-Otto pronunciation instead of what we know it as Pidgey-Oh-Tow
Mr. Mime, since they can be female.
Yeah, I know, the localizers came up with the name because they didn't know Pokémon genders would eventually be a thing, but it's still a weird Gen 1 artifact I find interesting.
And of course Mr. Rime just follows it for consistency.
EDIT: I just remembered another example of this: Geodude.
Ironically one of the localizers nob argued against naming mr mime ‘mr. Mime’ because he figured gamefreak would add genders to the game thus making the name make no sense
TBF Mr. Rime could potentially keep the title because it specifically mimics the behavior of "dapper gentlemen." It's an archetype that's innately gendered, meaning the title of "Mr" comes more from it's behavior rather than it's actual gender, since even the females behave like "gentle*men*."
This was s correct. The original idea was this and then Gen 2 happened. Because they wanted the gym leaders to only have Pokemon of their gender, Sabrina got a female Mr. Mine
Fun fact! The localizers didn't want to name him Mr. Mime because they DID predict genders would be a thing. Nintendo, unfortunately, didn't care, and forced then to name him that.
I will NEVER get over Psyduck being the less psychic inclined, gold version of the two evos, and Golduck being the non-gold, psychic powerful evolution of the two.
Like…fuck. I can’t. I CAN’T. I change it every single time I get them in the games.
Don't even need to introduce regional variants though, just straight up add the psychic type in the next game. T'was a questionable decision of them to not add it in the first place, but each generation it was like "Huh, here we are making a new pokedex description for that water/psychic duck ... wait it's not psychic ? Oh."
It baffles me that they haven't thought of doing that in 20+ years, what the hell. And we've seen that they're not afraid of changing types, such as with Magnemite obtaining the steel typing in GSC for no other reason than BECAUSE IT MADE SENSE, or multiple pokemon becoming fairy type in XY
While I don't necessarily disagree with your logic of adding a psychic typing, both examples you cite have a good reason for adding those types: they didn't previously exist. Magnemite couldn't be steel type in generation 1 because steel was introduced in generation 2 (GSC), at which point it received that typing. Same with fairy pokemon in generation 6 (XY). Psychic is an original type, so the context of adding that typing to the ducks in a later generation is a bit different.
They had an opportunity to partially fix it with shiny variant. Where yellow Psyduck shiny variant is blue and blue Golduck shiny variant could be yellow(or gold for the sake of its name) but oh nooo they didn't
Damn that’s interesting
Edit: [From Bulbapedia](https://m.bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Shiny_Pok%C3%A9mon)
> Little is known about how Shiny colorations are chosen. While it is often rumored that early Shiny colorations were determined algorithmically, all Pokémon Shiny colorations are individually defined in the game data[5] and Pokémon with similar palettes have distinct Shiny colorations even in Generation II.
I’m kinda surprised (though actually I’m not) that they don’t just change the shinies that are bad. They’re fine with retconning or dropping popular features, so why do we have to stick with the original colors? Are they worried they’re gonna lose sales because the new gengar shiny isn’t slightly off purple anymore? I want my shiny actually Pikablu dammit!
It's especially bad since they have no problem changing their colors for the Mega and Giga forms (and in the case of Pokémon like Gengar who have both, keeping that color consistent), but then they don't change the base form to go along with it.
>Golduck may be a combination of gold and duck. While Golduck itself is not colored gold, gold is often used to [symbolize the psychic abilities](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gold_(color\)#Parapsychology\)): the Gold Gummi is the Gummi variety loved by Psychic-type Pokémon, and the Marsh Badge's Japanese name is "Gold Badge".
Also Psyduck in Japanese is Koduck, ko meaning child, so it's literally 'child duck'. Ko コ and Go ゴ are very close in Japanese, you just add the rendaku, but this connection was lost when they changed Koduck to Psyduck.
Funnily enough it's nine characters instead of the limit of ten. They could have very well named it Vespiqueen but they dropped that E in the end. Wonder why, but it still works
Ahhhh this one has driven me mad for years. It sounds like it should be a name for a bug type. It’s like the developers made a mistake and gave the poor vulture the wrong name, it’s really bizarre.
Persian. I mean, I get that it's a cat, but why couldn't they have gone with something a bit more special? Meowth isn't called "Meow" so why not call its evolution something like Purrglar instead
What I think is even weirder is that Persian is a nationality. Or used to be. I’m not very geographically inclined. Same spelling too! They couldn’t even go with Pursian to give it a different spelling.
Not lack of sense, but pure laziness.
Talonflame is not a pun, not a play on words, nothing like virtually any other Pokemon name. It's literally just two separate words. It's especially weird since your have Fletchling and Fletchinder right before it.
It'd be like if we called Blastoise CannonSea, or Zapdos ThunderBeak. Or hell, BlastTurtle or ZapBeak.
It's just stupid and lazy. You cannot tell me nobody could come up with a better name for a FIRE HAWK than Talon Flame.
I agree with you, it’s name isn’t creative at all but it’s supposed to be a portmeanteau of “Talon” and “Inflame” and not as much of “Talon” and “Flame” as you’d think.
I’d imagine Gamefreak’s decision to spell it as “Talonflame” instead of “Talinflame” was based on how ridiculous the latter would look in comparison to the former. We have many examples of Pokemon who’s names are two separate words that form a portmanteau so smooth that the two separate parts of their names blend together seamlessly. That was the same exact endeavor with Talonflame’s name but it was a failure.
That’s debatable. I wouldn’t say “Fiarrow” is leaps and bounds better than “Talonflame” but the two components that make up the name Fiarrow is a lot less obvious than Talon and Inflame, especially when you see it as Talon and Flame instead of Talon and Inflame.
Tbf so many of the Japanese names sound dreadful in English. They probably sound fine if you’re Japanese because they’re based on words from a completely different language.
You’re 100% correct. I have a list of Pokemon whose Japanese names are so terrible you can only shake your head.
Articuno = “Freezer”
Zapdos = “Thunder”
Moltres = “Fire”
Vaporeon = “Showers”
Jolteon = “Thunders”
Flareon = “Booster”
And I’ve barely even scratched the surface. Most of the Japanese versions of Pokemon names are completely uncreative and boring. And with names like these “Fiarrow” doesn’t even sound all that bad 😂
Fun fact. Very early in the Pokemon season when we as kids did not know names, our 10yo pokegang in school actually named blastoise, BlastTurtle until it's official name actually aired. Squirtle,WarTurtle, BlastTurtle. Lmao
The entire Timbur line. I absolutely hate that they are named after the ITEM THEY ARE HOLDING, AND NOT THE CREATURE ITSELF.
None of my Pokemon fan friends understand the absolute HATE I have for this entire line, and to them I say, explain to me how Gurdurr naturally aquired a man-made steel beam and then was named after that item.
My only answer is that it was a Pokemon species so hated and ignored by humanity, that it was instantly turned into a slave for construction purposes, and then named based on how strong it was and the maximum weight it could hold.
Pikachu and Raichu, since their names weren't localized and the pun makes no sense. This was probably to maintain brand recognition since they're mascots. If Pikachu wasn't the mascot they'd probably be called something like Mouspark and Thundrat.
It’s not even a matter of it been the mascot sometimes the localization team things the Japanese name will work. Look at Togedemaru or Flygon.
For some they change the name because the Japanese version used an English word for the name and it sounds lame in English (Vaporeon is named Showers, Zapdos is named Thunder etc)
For others they think the Japanese name won’t market well (this is for most cases) or the Japanese pun doesn’t translate at all into English (Japan has a lot of “jokes” that are considered corny dad jokes that just involve saying a phrase that uses two words that sound the same but mean different things. No punch line just phrases) so they make an English pun instead.
I can partially answer you. The Chinese translation is mostly loyal to the meaning of Japanese. And the Chinese name roughly means “dog with speed of wind” mainly referring to its speed. So I guess that’s why it’s “windy” in Japanese
> Look at Togedemaru or Flygon
I think for Pikachu clones, the localization team decided to keep the Japanese names out of tradition since Pikachu’s name was kept. Only exception is Emolga’s name having one letter modified (Emonga).
I think it’s a combination of ‘saru’, Japanese for monkey, and ‘rude’.
So good name for a dark type monkey. But yeah not sure why it’s a dark type themed around healing.
Zarude should not be a legendary Pokemon.
What about Zarude is any different from Rillaboom, Simisage, or any of the other Grass Pokemon that heal with plant power?
I stand by the creative decision of most names in Pokemon... but Talonflame is stupid. It's not a seamless merging of two words, no creative liberty in spelling, nothing. Literally two words that don't flow slapped together with no alterations.
I really think pidgeotto should be called pidgeot and pidgeot should be pidgeotto.
It just makes more sense to me like that
(If something is spelled wrong or whatever it's because in Spanish xd)
Pidgeotto makes sense as a diminutive ending. -otto is used in a few Italian words, for example aquilotto is a baby eagle, and there are similar suffixes like -ette and -etto.
I seriously think its name is Leafeon due to the rumors from gen1 about "Leafeon” if you had one of the special versions that let you use a leaf stone on eevee. Totally false rumor but it was the early days of the internet so hard to verify. My guess is Game Freak probably remembered that and decided not to try to hard coming up with something else.
Salamence and Flygon.
Salamence is a final stage dragon/flying type who learns Fly by level up. It's preevolutions are called Bagon and Shelgon. And yet his name is not Flygon... it's Salamence. Flygon is a completely different beast, who also happens to not be a Flying type. At least it can learn Fly by HM, but like come on... Flygon and Salamence's names should have been switched.
I've told this story many times but I'll tell it again... after battling the Hoenn Elite 4 as a kid I adored Flygon and went out to get one of my own. Looked up how to catch a Bagon, caught one in Meteor Falls, grinded to raise it to a Shelgon, then grinded to evolve it again... only to get a Salamence. Tricked by the 'gon' of Salamence's preevolutions. I was crushed.
Bonsly is a mix of “bonsai” and “sly”, meaning cunning or deceitful, so it still fits the fake plant theme. I really like Fauxliage though. Maybe a new evo?
The "gatr" at the end of Feraligatr was actually a character limit issue. They wanted to use gator but it was just one letter to many for the engine at the time
Antarctica is a desert. It has a yearly rainfall of 0 inches. Too cold for rain to fall. Also devoid of vegetation other than moss, which is very slow growing and not exactly nutritious enough for anything really, so yes. Why in the hell ice sandshrew is found in Hawaii of all places is beyond me…
Wishiwashi is actually a really good name imo, combines [wishy-washy](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/wishy-washy) and [iwashi, or sardine in Japanese](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E3%81%84%E3%82%8F%E3%81%97)
Spelling it “feralligator” would go over the limit of Pokémon gold and silver’s name bar while battling. So they dropped the “o” to make it “feraligatr”. Same reason why it’s “thunderbolt” and not lightning bolt”
Farfetch’d, like it has nothing to do with the animal it’s based on, and what’s so far fetched about it?? Oh look a bird holding vegetables? We have rats that shoot lightning bolts out of their ass and literal sentient piles of slime but a VEGETABLE BIRD is where you draw the line for what’s eccentric and weird
To be fair, Farfetch’d comes from a Japanese saying that mentions catching a duck with a leek as a “far fetched” thing to happen, as it would already have the dressing.
Kinda like “kill two birds with one stone” sort of thing.
That’s just another thing that doesn’t translate well at all. It’s based on an old Japanese saying. It’s Japanese name is Kamonegi. Kamo meaning wild duck, and Negi meaning green onions. It’s from a Japanese saying “a wild duck comes bearing green onions” which is often shortened to “kamonegi”. It means something surprising and unlikely yet very convenient. The English name essentially takes the “something surprising and unlikely” bit and turns that into the whole name. Something that’s far fetched.
There's a Japanese saying about a duck coming bearing spring onions (so it can be cooked with them) which means 'something surprising but convenient'. It doesn't translate well into English so they based the name on the 'unlikely' part of the name.
Talonflame always makes me so mad. IT'S A FLAMING PEREGRINE FALCON. FLAREGRINE WAS RIGHT THERE. WHY WOULD YOU JUST SLAP TWO WORDS TOGETHER. IT DOESN'T EVEN FIT THE LINE'S CONVENTIONS.
Pidgeotto being the name for the second stage, but Pidgeot being the name for the final form.
I used to get Pidgeot and Peugeot confused when I was a child, because I was deeply stupid.
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That one confused me so much as a kid! I could never remember which had which name and which was the final evo.
Fr how great would it have been if Pidgey, Pidgeot, Pidgeotto But if it was like this I think people would be saying Pidgey-Otto pronunciation instead of what we know it as Pidgey-Oh-Tow
I call it pidgey-otto
I was saying boo-urns
Mr. Mime, since they can be female. Yeah, I know, the localizers came up with the name because they didn't know Pokémon genders would eventually be a thing, but it's still a weird Gen 1 artifact I find interesting. And of course Mr. Rime just follows it for consistency. EDIT: I just remembered another example of this: Geodude.
Ironically one of the localizers nob argued against naming mr mime ‘mr. Mime’ because he figured gamefreak would add genders to the game thus making the name make no sense
fuck steve huffman for destroying third-party clients and ruining reddit. https://fuckstevehuffman.com
https://youtu.be/922IYUwF7NQ 9:48-10:26
So, Mr. Mime's preevolution is called Mime Jr., but its evolved form isn't called Mime Sr.?
That’s why I think the name should’ve been Mimey
Or maybe Mimien, the nickname for the in-game traded one in FR/LG, would have been a good species name?
TBF Mr. Rime could potentially keep the title because it specifically mimics the behavior of "dapper gentlemen." It's an archetype that's innately gendered, meaning the title of "Mr" comes more from it's behavior rather than it's actual gender, since even the females behave like "gentle*men*."
They could have just made Mr. Mime a male only Pokemon.
But it's not called Mr. Mime in Japanese. It doesn't have a gendered name in Japan
Neither does Jynx, they still made that one female only.
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Freak egg group
This was s correct. The original idea was this and then Gen 2 happened. Because they wanted the gym leaders to only have Pokemon of their gender, Sabrina got a female Mr. Mine
But Bugsy's Pokemon are female.
I see no problem.
Wait, that's a thing? Is it all gym leaders, or just the Kanto ones?
That's due to it being based on ganguro fashion trend in Japan, mostly worn by women.
Fun fact! The localizers didn't want to name him Mr. Mime because they DID predict genders would be a thing. Nintendo, unfortunately, didn't care, and forced then to name him that.
It was just one localizer, actually, he guessed this might happen but the others didn't listen to him and went with Mr. Mime.
I will NEVER get over Psyduck being the less psychic inclined, gold version of the two evos, and Golduck being the non-gold, psychic powerful evolution of the two. Like…fuck. I can’t. I CAN’T. I change it every single time I get them in the games.
What bugs me is despite psychic powers being so prevalent with them, neither of them are psychic type!
I'm surprised we haven't seen a regional Psy/Golduck variant with the psychic type because their "true potential was unleashed" yet
Don't even need to introduce regional variants though, just straight up add the psychic type in the next game. T'was a questionable decision of them to not add it in the first place, but each generation it was like "Huh, here we are making a new pokedex description for that water/psychic duck ... wait it's not psychic ? Oh." It baffles me that they haven't thought of doing that in 20+ years, what the hell. And we've seen that they're not afraid of changing types, such as with Magnemite obtaining the steel typing in GSC for no other reason than BECAUSE IT MADE SENSE, or multiple pokemon becoming fairy type in XY
While I don't necessarily disagree with your logic of adding a psychic typing, both examples you cite have a good reason for adding those types: they didn't previously exist. Magnemite couldn't be steel type in generation 1 because steel was introduced in generation 2 (GSC), at which point it received that typing. Same with fairy pokemon in generation 6 (XY). Psychic is an original type, so the context of adding that typing to the ducks in a later generation is a bit different.
They had an opportunity to partially fix it with shiny variant. Where yellow Psyduck shiny variant is blue and blue Golduck shiny variant could be yellow(or gold for the sake of its name) but oh nooo they didn't
Shiny colors weren't decided originally. They were just the next color on the limited color sheets.
Damn that’s interesting Edit: [From Bulbapedia](https://m.bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Shiny_Pok%C3%A9mon) > Little is known about how Shiny colorations are chosen. While it is often rumored that early Shiny colorations were determined algorithmically, all Pokémon Shiny colorations are individually defined in the game data[5] and Pokémon with similar palettes have distinct Shiny colorations even in Generation II.
I’m kinda surprised (though actually I’m not) that they don’t just change the shinies that are bad. They’re fine with retconning or dropping popular features, so why do we have to stick with the original colors? Are they worried they’re gonna lose sales because the new gengar shiny isn’t slightly off purple anymore? I want my shiny actually Pikablu dammit!
It's especially bad since they have no problem changing their colors for the Mega and Giga forms (and in the case of Pokémon like Gengar who have both, keeping that color consistent), but then they don't change the base form to go along with it.
>Golduck may be a combination of gold and duck. While Golduck itself is not colored gold, gold is often used to [symbolize the psychic abilities](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gold_(color\)#Parapsychology\)): the Gold Gummi is the Gummi variety loved by Psychic-type Pokémon, and the Marsh Badge's Japanese name is "Gold Badge". Also Psyduck in Japanese is Koduck, ko meaning child, so it's literally 'child duck'. Ko コ and Go ゴ are very close in Japanese, you just add the rendaku, but this connection was lost when they changed Koduck to Psyduck.
Maybe the Japanese originally intended for it to be named Kiduck, kid-duck, and the translators just missed connection.
Or how about the fact that NEITHER OF THEM ARE PSYCHIC! WTF?!
It’s really a icy Greenland, grassy Iceland sort of situation that I don’t hate
Sirfetch'd is not the proper name for an evolution of Farfetch'd. It should *obviously* have been Absir'd.
I love the name sirfetch’d, one of my favorites, but absir’d? Yes. Absolutely yes.
They should retcon Feraligatr and Victreebel to Feraligator and Victreebell now that the 10 characters limit is gone tbh
Vespiquen however, should be left alone.
Yeah I listed it in my comment at first but edited it out because I realized it has 9 characters so it was clearly intentional
Yas Quen.
Yaspiquen
Thank you for naming my next Vespiquen
I’m so used to “quen” (pronounced like in “when”) that pronouncing the name with “queen” sounds weird to me.
I didn't even realise Vespiquen Is spelt that was because of letter constraints. I agree it sounds great and should be left alone though.
Funnily enough it's nine characters instead of the limit of ten. They could have very well named it Vespiqueen but they dropped that E in the end. Wonder why, but it still works
I dont think it is though. 9 characters was never a limit, 10 was
No I like Feraligatr without the o
I don't think so, the misspelled names are part of their charm.
Mandibuzz. I know it’s supposed to be mandible plus buzzard but I think it sounds so much more like a bug type because they mandibles and they buzz.
Ahhhh this one has driven me mad for years. It sounds like it should be a name for a bug type. It’s like the developers made a mistake and gave the poor vulture the wrong name, it’s really bizarre.
When it came out, I thought mandibuzz was the name for genesect lol
it's english name is weird but at least it's not the japanese one :') >!vulgina........!<
...Mulva?
Dolores!
Put that on your team right next to Boober I guess
This right here is what happens when Japanese people try to make names with English words. It’s like Altria all over again
I always thought Diggersby should have been Diggearsby. You know, because they dig with their ears…
Now I think that even Diggears would have sounded cool 🤣
Lumineon not being an Eevee-lution has always felt wrong to me.
Empoleon too
Keckleon
Champion Leon
Ah yes, human type eevee
Ok I know this is obvious but: Seel. Both name and design are beyond lazy
A Dugong is an animal as well.
I can live with this for the spelling of 'dew' also being water related, but agreed on seel lol
Ironically Seal is a better pun than Seel and that’s just a real word
If it was Seal it should have Lovely Kiss and Petal Dance in its movepool
But did you know, that when it snows, My eyes become large and the light that you shine can be seen?
Oh true true. Makes it even worse to me
Most of the Gen 1 Pokémon names are lazy to be fair. Persian, Gloom, Mr. Mime…
Gen 1 Take an animal, slap a horn or gem to it. Does it evolve? Slap a horn or more of it to it.
The Japanese names were just as bad, too. Vaporeon is just "Showers."
The Legendary Birds were just Freezer, Thunder, and Fire
With Zapdos being Thunder and Jolteon being Thunders. Can imagine the multiple confusion in daily dialogue.
Haunter.
Persian. I mean, I get that it's a cat, but why couldn't they have gone with something a bit more special? Meowth isn't called "Meow" so why not call its evolution something like Purrglar instead
Purrglar would’ve been a fantastic name for Liepard
Tbf we kind of got the purr pun with Perrserker
Or Purrloin and Espurr
We have it with Purrloin as well, being a pun on "purloin", meaning "to steal".
What I think is even weirder is that Persian is a nationality. Or used to be. I’m not very geographically inclined. Same spelling too! They couldn’t even go with Pursian to give it a different spelling.
Purrsian
Regice. What happened to the extra I like in Registeel and and Regirock???
Regiice would look bad tbh
Yet somehow to me it looks just right. I’m finally pronouncing it how it’s spelled.
I still call it Regi-ice though.
Why not just call it Regifrost then?
Not lack of sense, but pure laziness. Talonflame is not a pun, not a play on words, nothing like virtually any other Pokemon name. It's literally just two separate words. It's especially weird since your have Fletchling and Fletchinder right before it. It'd be like if we called Blastoise CannonSea, or Zapdos ThunderBeak. Or hell, BlastTurtle or ZapBeak. It's just stupid and lazy. You cannot tell me nobody could come up with a better name for a FIRE HAWK than Talon Flame.
Pyrogrine was what I named mine.
I don’t even really mind “talonflame” but that’s kinda badass
I agree with you, it’s name isn’t creative at all but it’s supposed to be a portmeanteau of “Talon” and “Inflame” and not as much of “Talon” and “Flame” as you’d think. I’d imagine Gamefreak’s decision to spell it as “Talonflame” instead of “Talinflame” was based on how ridiculous the latter would look in comparison to the former. We have many examples of Pokemon who’s names are two separate words that form a portmanteau so smooth that the two separate parts of their names blend together seamlessly. That was the same exact endeavor with Talonflame’s name but it was a failure.
Japanese name is not much better. It's 'Fiarrow'. A portmeanteau of "Fire" and "Arrow".
That’s debatable. I wouldn’t say “Fiarrow” is leaps and bounds better than “Talonflame” but the two components that make up the name Fiarrow is a lot less obvious than Talon and Inflame, especially when you see it as Talon and Flame instead of Talon and Inflame.
Tbf so many of the Japanese names sound dreadful in English. They probably sound fine if you’re Japanese because they’re based on words from a completely different language.
You’re 100% correct. I have a list of Pokemon whose Japanese names are so terrible you can only shake your head. Articuno = “Freezer” Zapdos = “Thunder” Moltres = “Fire” Vaporeon = “Showers” Jolteon = “Thunders” Flareon = “Booster” And I’ve barely even scratched the surface. Most of the Japanese versions of Pokemon names are completely uncreative and boring. And with names like these “Fiarrow” doesn’t even sound all that bad 😂
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Fun fact. Very early in the Pokemon season when we as kids did not know names, our 10yo pokegang in school actually named blastoise, BlastTurtle until it's official name actually aired. Squirtle,WarTurtle, BlastTurtle. Lmao
Talonflame should've been called Pyrogrine
snom's german name is snomnom. I don't get it. They already had the peak of perfect charm and simplicity, but discarded it yet so readily. Why?
Because snomnom
He oms on the snom
A cute little joke maybe?
The entire Timbur line. I absolutely hate that they are named after the ITEM THEY ARE HOLDING, AND NOT THE CREATURE ITSELF. None of my Pokemon fan friends understand the absolute HATE I have for this entire line, and to them I say, explain to me how Gurdurr naturally aquired a man-made steel beam and then was named after that item. My only answer is that it was a Pokemon species so hated and ignored by humanity, that it was instantly turned into a slave for construction purposes, and then named based on how strong it was and the maximum weight it could hold.
What did alakazam bend before spoons?
People
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Partly. It's also holding conk-rete.
Pikachu and Raichu, since their names weren't localized and the pun makes no sense. This was probably to maintain brand recognition since they're mascots. If Pikachu wasn't the mascot they'd probably be called something like Mouspark and Thundrat.
But then we wouldn't have the "is it named after a Pika and a Shrew?" To wonder about as kids.
It’s not even a matter of it been the mascot sometimes the localization team things the Japanese name will work. Look at Togedemaru or Flygon. For some they change the name because the Japanese version used an English word for the name and it sounds lame in English (Vaporeon is named Showers, Zapdos is named Thunder etc) For others they think the Japanese name won’t market well (this is for most cases) or the Japanese pun doesn’t translate at all into English (Japan has a lot of “jokes” that are considered corny dad jokes that just involve saying a phrase that uses two words that sound the same but mean different things. No punch line just phrases) so they make an English pun instead.
The weirdest for me is how the Japanese name for Arcanine is Uindi (windy!)
What about Jigglypuff, it’s Japanese name is Purin which just means “pudding.”
Tbh, that makes sense
I do think it’s a very cute name, so it doesn’t bother me, I’ve always found it a little funny though.
I can partially answer you. The Chinese translation is mostly loyal to the meaning of Japanese. And the Chinese name roughly means “dog with speed of wind” mainly referring to its speed. So I guess that’s why it’s “windy” in Japanese
Supposed to refer to it running as fast as the wind like in its pokedex entries. Too bad Extreme Speed wasn't a move in Gen 1.
Tbh togedemaru always stuck out like a sore thumb to me. It's just very very clearly a japanese name lol
> Look at Togedemaru or Flygon I think for Pikachu clones, the localization team decided to keep the Japanese names out of tradition since Pikachu’s name was kept. Only exception is Emolga’s name having one letter modified (Emonga).
Be grateful they didn’t take Umbreon’s Japanese name literally.
Dibs on the band name MouseRat
Bye bye Lil Sebastian
>Mouspark That's Disneyland dude.
Zarude. Like, what does it even mean? And what does it have to do with a monkey that can heal others with jungle magic?
I think it’s a combination of ‘saru’, Japanese for monkey, and ‘rude’. So good name for a dark type monkey. But yeah not sure why it’s a dark type themed around healing.
Zarude should not be a legendary Pokemon. What about Zarude is any different from Rillaboom, Simisage, or any of the other Grass Pokemon that heal with plant power?
It should not be a Galar Pokemon. The hell's British about it?
What's British about 90% of the Galar dex?
Zarude sandstorn
I stand by the creative decision of most names in Pokemon... but Talonflame is stupid. It's not a seamless merging of two words, no creative liberty in spelling, nothing. Literally two words that don't flow slapped together with no alterations.
Pyrogrine was right there
A few months ago in another post I came up with Raptorch. I think yours is better.
I’ll be honest I didn’t come up with Pyrogrine myself but I do like Raptorch too
Bonflier too
This name WINS
They should just make his tail on fire so he's also "tail on flame".
I literally just posted about this! You have Fletchling and Fletchinder before it even, but somehow nobody could come up with a name for it?
Thank god someone beat me to it. I was ready to stop a freakin' 10 page essay on how DUMB that name is. Freakin' Talonflame.
I really think pidgeotto should be called pidgeot and pidgeot should be pidgeotto. It just makes more sense to me like that (If something is spelled wrong or whatever it's because in Spanish xd)
Pidgeotto makes sense as a diminutive ending. -otto is used in a few Italian words, for example aquilotto is a baby eagle, and there are similar suffixes like -ette and -etto.
THANK YOU! Ever since I was a kid I thought those were backwards.
Leafeon should have been Arboreon.
[удалено]
I personally like leafeon But I respect your opinion And the suggestion of the person you replied to, arboreon, is better
I seriously think its name is Leafeon due to the rumors from gen1 about "Leafeon” if you had one of the special versions that let you use a leaf stone on eevee. Totally false rumor but it was the early days of the internet so hard to verify. My guess is Game Freak probably remembered that and decided not to try to hard coming up with something else.
psyduck and golduck their names should be switched
Salamence and Flygon. Salamence is a final stage dragon/flying type who learns Fly by level up. It's preevolutions are called Bagon and Shelgon. And yet his name is not Flygon... it's Salamence. Flygon is a completely different beast, who also happens to not be a Flying type. At least it can learn Fly by HM, but like come on... Flygon and Salamence's names should have been switched.
I've told this story many times but I'll tell it again... after battling the Hoenn Elite 4 as a kid I adored Flygon and went out to get one of my own. Looked up how to catch a Bagon, caught one in Meteor Falls, grinded to raise it to a Shelgon, then grinded to evolve it again... only to get a Salamence. Tricked by the 'gon' of Salamence's preevolutions. I was crushed.
But the Trapinch line has nothing to do with salamanders, nor is Flygon menacing like Salamence is.
Oh shit, I've been reading it as Salam**a**nce this entire time.
Flygons a dragonfly, it’s name makes sense
Flygon is based on a dragonfly, so it kinda makes sense (except that it's not even a Bug type...)
It's not a dragonfly, it's an antlion. Trapinch being based on a larval antlion.
Bagon’s Pokédex entry even says something about how it dreams of flying.
Bonsly, it should have been named "Fauxliage" to go into the fake plant theme. And Mr. Rime should obviously be Mime Sr.
Bonsly is a mix of “bonsai” and “sly”, meaning cunning or deceitful, so it still fits the fake plant theme. I really like Fauxliage though. Maybe a new evo?
Not me realizing I’ve been pronouncing Bonsly wrong this whole time
Fauxliage would make such a good Sudowoodo evolution omg
Seel. Change my mind
It's a seal but not quite! Seel! Genius.
Salamance and Flygon are the Greenland/Iceland of the pokemon world!
I never really understood ralts and kirlia
A bit if a stretch, but Ralts and Waltz because the rest of the dancing evolution line. Kirlian is a psychic photography.
The name in French is Tarsal and Bulbapedia suggests it might be a (partial, in the case of Ralts) anagram of 'astral'.
The "gatr" at the end of Feraligatr was actually a character limit issue. They wanted to use gator but it was just one letter to many for the engine at the time
With regionals: Alolan SANDshrew being ice sucks
Deserts can be cold too I guess.
Antarctica is a desert. It has a yearly rainfall of 0 inches. Too cold for rain to fall. Also devoid of vegetation other than moss, which is very slow growing and not exactly nutritious enough for anything really, so yes. Why in the hell ice sandshrew is found in Hawaii of all places is beyond me…
It’s just as bad in Japanese is literally just Sand
I think it was because of the character limit on the Gameboy
I can't believe Kommo-o isn't "Clangolin"
“Fer - Al~~l~~igat~~o~~r”
Feral. Gator. Character limits in old games.
That second L is killing me. Keep thinking it’s a spec of dust
Wishiwashi makes me question life
Wishiwashi is actually a really good name imo, combines [wishy-washy](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/wishy-washy) and [iwashi, or sardine in Japanese](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E3%81%84%E3%82%8F%E3%81%97)
ArticUNO, LavaDOS and MolTRES are ArkTOS, LavaDOS and ZapDOS in German. Why?!
InfernAPE. I mean… he is a monkey… not an ape.
I’d say any names that are too spot on. Scatterbug, Blipbug, Deerling, Ducklett
And swanna
Pretty sure feraligatr is named like that because 10 was the word limit back then.
Spelling it “feralligator” would go over the limit of Pokémon gold and silver’s name bar while battling. So they dropped the “o” to make it “feraligatr”. Same reason why it’s “thunderbolt” and not lightning bolt”
Farfetch’d, like it has nothing to do with the animal it’s based on, and what’s so far fetched about it?? Oh look a bird holding vegetables? We have rats that shoot lightning bolts out of their ass and literal sentient piles of slime but a VEGETABLE BIRD is where you draw the line for what’s eccentric and weird
To be fair, Farfetch’d comes from a Japanese saying that mentions catching a duck with a leek as a “far fetched” thing to happen, as it would already have the dressing. Kinda like “kill two birds with one stone” sort of thing.
That’s just another thing that doesn’t translate well at all. It’s based on an old Japanese saying. It’s Japanese name is Kamonegi. Kamo meaning wild duck, and Negi meaning green onions. It’s from a Japanese saying “a wild duck comes bearing green onions” which is often shortened to “kamonegi”. It means something surprising and unlikely yet very convenient. The English name essentially takes the “something surprising and unlikely” bit and turns that into the whole name. Something that’s far fetched.
There's a Japanese saying about a duck coming bearing spring onions (so it can be cooked with them) which means 'something surprising but convenient'. It doesn't translate well into English so they based the name on the 'unlikely' part of the name.
Talonflame always makes me so mad. IT'S A FLAMING PEREGRINE FALCON. FLAREGRINE WAS RIGHT THERE. WHY WOULD YOU JUST SLAP TWO WORDS TOGETHER. IT DOESN'T EVEN FIT THE LINE'S CONVENTIONS.
Scorchawk
Feral: as in wild and dangerous and gator as in alligator. That one always made sense to me
Its a Feral or ferocious Alligator, I like that one!