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Name Themes You've Used?

FloatzieDPPT

playing Version X
I was inspired to make this post after someone wrote about their name theme for Pokemon XY in a thread I made.

I remember having a Fruit name theme during my Sun and Moon playthrough ( My Rowlet was called Pear).



What name themes have you used and why?
 

Pokefan_1987

Avid Pokemon TCG Card collector.
I rarely make names...super rarely

I named the Groudon in Omega Ruby.....Godzilla since it literally looks like it can melt the earth in the Primal Reversion.
I removed the nickname after i got a Tyrannitar and the Mega Stone.

But my best one was Pokemon Sword and in Ultra Sun, in both cases i caught and nicknamed a Dusk Form Lycanroc after our old dog Thea.
Still Australian Silky Terriers are a tiny dogs compared to Lycanroc's wolf design.
 
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Ishiftyounot

The Meme Supreme
I find that I alternate between my teams having a consistent theme, only certain team members having a theme and not having a theme at all. Nicknames as a whole are important to me because I feel like they give the Pokemon some sense of character and make them feel real? I'm not a roleplayer and I do not have an OC (I wish I did though, it seems so fun! Guidance on doing so is welcome) but having my player character feel like an actual person and the Pokemon they use feel like a genuine team member and part of a squad makes the file more fun for me. Themes can make a whole team work cohesively, whilst random names actually make the Pokemon themselves stand out a little bit more. Funny how that works.

Sinnoh:
395.png
407.png
467.png
464.png
468.png
466.png

(Royal ~ Bandit ~ Amaterasu ~ Titan ~ Virtue ~ Raijin)
This is my Brilliant Diamond team... that I haven't yet beaten the game with yet. This line-up has a partial theme with Magmortar (Amaterasu) and Electivire (Raijin), named after Japanese deities. It works really well - Electivire looks and feels like a thunder god, and Magmortar is the natural counterpart to Electivire so it needed a name of equal standing. Empoleon is named Royal to reflect the colour (royal blue) and its appearance (it has a royal appearance). Roserade is named Bandit due to the masquerade mask, Togekiss was named Virtue because it looks like a pure being, and Rhyperior is named Titan because it kinda fits the Greek myth but mainly because it's big and strong?

Johto:
160.png
232.png
206.png
169.png
214.png
197.png

(Chomper ~ Dumbo ~ Darren ~ Vengeance ~ Hercules ~ Halo)
This is my Crystal team from late-2020, which has no themed nicknames! The names mostly fit - Feraligatr's main theme is biting so Chomper works, Donphan is an elephant so Dumbo makes sense, The Batman had an awesome trailer come out around then so Crobat was named Vengeance in support of that, Heracross is designed from a hercules beetle and Umbreon has halos on it (plus I always name Umbreon Halo, from way back in 2010 in my first HGSS playthrough). The only weird one is Darren the Dunsparce, named because my roommate at the time thought it was funny - it was his idea to use it after he bet I'd find one instead of the Teddiursa I was hunting, and thus Darren became a meme in my house.

Hoenn:
260.png
282.png
286.png
310.png
330.png
359.png

(Poseidon ~ Athena ~ Ares ~ Zeus ~ Hermes ~ Hades)
This is my Sapphire team, named after the Greek gods! I was going to do the Roman equivalent in ORAS when I got around to playing it, but I'd stopped my "beat every generation" run by the time I hit Gen IV. The names fit the Pokemon well, do I need to explain them? Breloom was named Ares over Demeter or Persephone (the more Grass-type fitting names) because I was not intending to use Breloom as a true Grass type in this playthrough, but that's the only one with a nickname you could maybe question.

Kanto:
003.png
034.png
065.png
134.png
094.png
145.png

(Huu ~ Bumi ~ Pathik ~ Paku ~ Koh ~ Azula)
006.png
026.png
036.png
028.png
103.png
087.png

(Iroh ~ Momo ~ Yue ~ Toph ~ Bushi ~ Appa)
These are my Kanto teams! The top team is from Red, the bottom team is from LeafGreen. Both have nicknames based off of Avatar: The Last Airbender and a future Let's Go team would have continued that theme (or maybe diverged into Legend of Korra nicknames). Why? I was watching the show at the time at the behest of a friend, think I finished the show by the time I'd beaten LeafGreen. Again the names make sense if you watched the show, I think the only niche ones were the Grass type names (Huu was the swampbender, Bushi was the name of that weird dude from the Painted Lady episode) but everyone else makes sense.

As for the future, I'm aiming to clear my Pokemon games on my Switch before Scarlet/Violet come out - Brilliant Diamond, Sword/Shield, Let's Go Eevee and Legends: Arceus. I think at the moment my thoughts are to either keep the same semi-themed names from Brilliant Diamond across all games, or to have no theme at all and just name the Pokemon after what I think fits them in my head at the time? But we'll see, plenty of time to decide that (BDSP is far from finished for me).
 

Reinhardt

You! Me! Rivals! Yes?
I don't usually have a theme with nicknames, usually I go with something that suits the Pokemon, a reference to something I like, or the first thing that comes to my head when I look at the design. However, by pure coincidence, in one successful Pokemon Sword playthrough I did, most of my team ended up having history themed names:
- Gigantamax Inteleon - "Simo", named after Simo Häyhä, a Finnish military sniper who killed 500 Soviet soldiers during the Soviet Union's failed invasion of Finland in World War II.
- Single Strike Style Urshifu - "Wojtek", named after a bear who was adopted by some Polish soldiers during World War II, and was eventually given the rank of Corporal in the Polish military. That's right, there was a point in history when an actual bear was serving in the Polish military.
- Hatterene - "Isobel" - named after Isobel Gowdie, a Scottish woman from the 17th Century who claimed to be a witch and gave one of the most detailed accounts of witchcraft and its practices documented at the time. This name also works for Hatterene's Fairy typing, because one of Isobel Gowdie's most notable claims is that she met the king and queen of fairies.

Other than that, while my teams don't usually have a running theme with their names, there'll usually be one or two that have things in common with ther names. For example in a Shield playthrough I did, I had a Cinderace named "Zidane" (named after French footballer Zinedene Zidane) and a Hitmonchan named "Tyson" (named after British boxer Tyson Fury), so that's two named after sports stars.
 

Auraninja

Eh, ragazzo!
The most I ever named Pokemon was in Black 2 because of some achievement.

I named a Vaporeon Discure (dissolve + obscure), a Roselia Dryas (meaning beautiful), and an Ampharos Baabaabang (related to a long word bababa... which was used in a book meaning thunder).

My most consistent naming scheme comes from any game set in Hoenn, because I usually get a Treecko and name it Yoshi.
 

FloatzieDPPT

playing Version X
I find that I alternate between my teams having a consistent theme, only certain team members having a theme and not having a theme at all. Nicknames as a whole are important to me because I feel like they give the Pokemon some sense of character and make them feel real? I'm not a roleplayer and I do not have an OC (I wish I did though, it seems so fun! Guidance on doing so is welcome) but having my player character feel like an actual person and the Pokemon they use feel like a genuine team member and part of a squad makes the file more fun for me. Themes can make a whole team work cohesively, whilst random names actually make the Pokemon themselves stand out a little bit more. Funny how that works.

Sinnoh:
395.png
407.png
467.png
464.png
468.png
466.png

(Royal ~ Bandit ~ Amaterasu ~ Titan ~ Virtue ~ Raijin)
This is my Brilliant Diamond team... that I haven't yet beaten the game with yet. This line-up has a partial theme with Magmortar (Amaterasu) and Electivire (Raijin), named after Japanese deities. It works really well - Electivire looks and feels like a thunder god, and Magmortar is the natural counterpart to Electivire so it needed a name of equal standing. Empoleon is named Royal to reflect the colour (royal blue) and its appearance (it has a royal appearance). Roserade is named Bandit due to the masquerade mask, Togekiss was named Virtue because it looks like a pure being, and Rhyperior is named Titan because it kinda fits the Greek myth but mainly because it's big and strong?

Johto:
160.png
232.png
206.png
169.png
214.png
197.png

(Chomper ~ Dumbo ~ Darren ~ Vengeance ~ Hercules ~ Halo)
This is my Crystal team from late-2020, which has no themed nicknames! The names mostly fit - Feraligatr's main theme is biting so Chomper works, Donphan is an elephant so Dumbo makes sense, The Batman had an awesome trailer come out around then so Crobat was named Vengeance in support of that, Heracross is designed from a hercules beetle and Umbreon has halos on it (plus I always name Umbreon Halo, from way back in 2010 in my first HGSS playthrough). The only weird one is Darren the Dunsparce, named because my roommate at the time thought it was funny - it was his idea to use it after he bet I'd find one instead of the Teddiursa I was hunting, and thus Darren became a meme in my house.

Hoenn:
260.png
282.png
286.png
310.png
330.png
359.png

(Poseidon ~ Athena ~ Ares ~ Zeus ~ Hermes ~ Hades)
This is my Sapphire team, named after the Greek gods! I was going to do the Roman equivalent in ORAS when I got around to playing it, but I'd stopped my "beat every generation" run by the time I hit Gen IV. The names fit the Pokemon well, do I need to explain them? Breloom was named Ares over Demeter or Persephone (the more Grass-type fitting names) because I was not intending to use Breloom as a true Grass type in this playthrough, but that's the only one with a nickname you could maybe question.

Kanto:
003.png
034.png
065.png
134.png
094.png
145.png

(Huu ~ Bumi ~ Pathik ~ Paku ~ Koh ~ Azula)
006.png
026.png
036.png
028.png
103.png
087.png

(Iroh ~ Momo ~ Yue ~ Toph ~ Bushi ~ Appa)
These are my Kanto teams! The top team is from Red, the bottom team is from LeafGreen. Both have nicknames based off of Avatar: The Last Airbender and a future Let's Go team would have continued that theme (or maybe diverged into Legend of Korra nicknames). Why? I was watching the show at the time at the behest of a friend, think I finished the show by the time I'd beaten LeafGreen. Again the names make sense if you watched the show, I think the only niche ones were the Grass type names (Huu was the swampbender, Bushi was the name of that weird dude from the Painted Lady episode) but everyone else makes sense.

As for the future, I'm aiming to clear my Pokemon games on my Switch before Scarlet/Violet come out - Brilliant Diamond, Sword/Shield, Let's Go Eevee and Legends: Arceus. I think at the moment my thoughts are to either keep the same semi-themed names from Brilliant Diamond across all games, or to have no theme at all and just name the Pokemon after what I think fits them in my head at the time? But we'll see, plenty of time to decide that (BDSP is far from finished for me).
I envy your creativity. I tried having a theme of natural disasters during Pokemon Emerald but I forgot about the theme.
 

Missingno.Fan

Well-Known Member
On White 2, I named all my Pokémon after characters from shows I watched. All I remember was I had a Samurott named Sheldon (from Big Bang Theory) and a Lucario named Brick (from The Middle).
 

brightpowder

fairy, fairy, quite contrary
in my youth i usually gave them human names i just happened to like. i didn't usually have a theme.

as a sophisticated adult, i named all of my pokemon in shield after vegetables. no real reason why. arugula the helioptile, chili the noivern, maize the aromatisse, asparagus the lycanroc, shallot the ninetales, and i was going to name gourgeist just yam but then she just ended up being yamanda instead. because i am a professional comedian.

when i pick up sword i'll do all fruits to match
 

zolios

Well-Known Member
I usually don't have a theme for my nicknames but there were a few playthrough where I did go with a theme so I talk about those.

In my VC Crystal Wedlocke my theme was characters from How To Train Your Dragon, in Sapphire it was DC comics characters and in Heart Gold it was ancient Egyptian Gods/Goddesses.

Some of my favorites were Sobek the Feraligatr, Nightwing the Crobat, Toothless the Dragonite, Bucket the Tauros, Tuffnut the Furret...
 
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Captain Jigglypuff

Leader of Jigglypuff Army
I’ve done a play through of Ruby where all but one nickname was themed around RuPaul’s Drag Race contestants. My female Torchic was Miss Fame (her favorite animal is the chicken), Bianca the Ralts, and I think Shroomish was Adore. Can’t remember the rest of the names.
 

wobbanut

Team Awesome
I've stopped naming my pokemon. I used to do it a lot, and had some traditions like naming Psyduck after main characters in the show, and Jigglypuff after singers, but now I don't do anything. I knew I was done when I was mostly giving them gibberish names.
 

Captain Jigglypuff

Leader of Jigglypuff Army
A nickname that I must have in every game is a Ditto named Xerox. F (for Furious) George if Mankey and Primape are in the game. Most of my games have a female Absol named Cassandra but the rest of my nicknames are whatever I think fits best at the moment.
 

TheCharredDragon

Tis the Hour to Reload
While I almost always give my Pokémon nicknames, especially my story team...a naming theme for the entire game? Nah, I don't. I usually go for whatever I feel fits the Pokémon and/or whatever I feel like naming it when I catch/receive it. Sometimes I name the Pokémon after a character or mythological figure I feel fits it, sometimes I use a word that relates to the Pokémon or a corrupted version of it (ie like writing Ryder instead of Rider) or just something that sounds like the word I want (like what Toby Fox did with Rouxls in deltrarune), sometimes it's just a random name that just felt right to me at the time, sometimes it's a purposefully ironic name and sometimes it's all three at once.

Though thinking on it, I think the only time I had a proper theme for a team was my White playthrough, where I decided to name all my story team members after an appropriate knight of the Round Table, more specifically the ones I liked that fit the Pokémon and are usually the more obscure/less popular ones, since I'm a sucker for the knights and it fit with the idea of "WE are the TRUE knights, not Team Plasma".
 

Feity

Storm Trainer
I did several nuzlocke challenges back in the day and for each one I would pick a nickname theme for my team like naming them after superheroes or tv show characters. One time I gave them nicknames based on French desserts. Don't ask why lol.
 

Vindicated30.6

Ace and Aspie, for life and light!
I had the idea for a Fighting Gym team where they were all dual types and different colors, named after the Power Rangers, for example Blaziken would be Red Ranger, Heracross would be Blue Ranger, Medicham would be Pink Ranger, Toxicroak would be Purple Ranger (yes, there was a Purple Ranger in Jungle Fury), Scrafty as Gold Ranger, and Breloom would be Green Ranger.
 

Random Man2

HYPER BEAM!
I've used solar deities, Bleach Zanpakutou, Islam, lunar deities, Legend of Zelda deities, Christianity, Hinduism, Earth deities, Sabaton songs, crusade-related stuff, Nazism, and Chinese martial arts as themes for numerous competitive Pokémon teams of mine. You can read about said teams on this website.
 

janejane6178

Kaleido Star FOREVER in my heart <3
For my xy runs I used elegant theme, because Kalos Pokemon are elegant and beautiful
 

Miraidon

Blasting off at the speed of light!
I went with many themes before: ATLA, One Piece, Wrong Pokémon names, city names, IRL friends, I even streamed and let viewers choose names!
 

Vindicated30.6

Ace and Aspie, for life and light!
I just wiped on my Kalos Nuzlocke so I'm starting it over and going with a music theme. My Pidgey is Aerosmith and my Pansage is Beastie Boyz. I just got Bunnelby and named it Good Bunny (because I don't want to call my Pokemon Bad Bunny, that's just mean lol)
 
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PrinceOfFacade

Ghost-Type Master
I've done all sorts of name themes. The most recent I've done was a gemstone theme, naming all pokemon caught after corresponding gemstones, usually by color.

Other themes I've done include:

- Cardinal Virtues (Sword & Shield)
- Yoruba Words (Legends Arceus)
- Spanish Words
- Adjectives
- Verbs
- Mortal Kombat
- Tekken
- Soulcalibur
- X-Men
- Greek Gods
- Japanese Gods
- Egyptian Gods
- Animals
- The Divine Comedy (separate from Cardinal Virtues)
 
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