Naming Pokemon - Help, please.

[Chickorita]

Does anyone have any tips for naming Pokemon in the story? As in, what your trainer calls his/her pokemon? Are English names okay or should they be Japanese? Do they have to have special significance or can they just be called Emily or Max?

Please help and thank you in advance.

 

[Ysavvryl]

They can be whatever you like.

Seriously. I've used everything from (nearly) all alliterative names (stuff like Stacy for a Squirtle or Trey for a Treecko), deep meaningful names that only a few might get, names picked at random from a phone book, names that just sound cool, Japanese, Chinese, Spanish, old-fashioned, whatever.

A more specific guideline: what would your character name his or her Pokemon? If the character is very intelligent, they might be more likely to choose more obscure names. If the character likes things simple, the Pokemon names will be simple. If the character adores cute things, the names will be cutesy. If the character is silly, the names might be puns. I feel quite strongly that the given names for a Pokemon ought to reflect upon their original Trainer more than anything.

 

[Yami Ryu]

It depends.

Aka like dogs from listed/official dog breeders usually have asinine long names. Aka like Word word of Word or Word's word word- etc. Sometimes fanciful sometimes just plain down retarded. Same with show dogs.

Pet animals usually have one name [usually the owners last name is used as their second part of the name]. And as such pets usually have simple names, ranging from 'Spot' and 'Max' to glorified names like Yuki, Pikachu, Yoshi etc.

This is mostly dependent upon one factor- the same factor in any trainer story. The human characters and how would they name them?

 

[//Mix\\]

HAVE A LAME LITTLE TIP.

When I nickname Pokemon, I use Wikipedia. Like, for a Water-type, I'd wiki-search "water", find a cool-sounding word with some relation to water, perhaps change a letter or so, and use it as the nickname.

 

[BladedScizor]

They can be whatever you like.

Seriously. I've used everything from (nearly) all alliterative names (stuff like Stacy for a Squirtle or Trey for a Treecko), deep meaningful names that only a few might get, names picked at random from a phone book, names that just sound cool, Japanese, Chinese, Spanish, old-fashioned, whatever.

A more specific guideline: what would your character name his or her Pokemon? If the character is very intelligent, they might be more likely to choose more obscure names. If the character likes things simple, the Pokemon names will be simple. If the character adores cute things, the names will be cutesy. If the character is silly, the names might be puns. I feel quite strongly that the given names for a Pokemon ought to reflect upon their original Trainer more than anything.

My sentiments exactly. For names a trainer gives their Pokemon, you really have to think about the trainer him- or herself, and imagine what they would name a particular Pokemon based on the background and personality you gave said trainer.

As for languages, personally, one of the things that really bugs me in stories is severe overuse of foreign language-based names for no particular reason. If your trainer is giving their Pokemon Japanese names, you really need to establish that they actually have some knowledge of the Japanese terms they're using, or it just comes off as pretentious.

 

[Torkoal]

I generally use names that have something to do with the pokemon's species. Like for example, I named a Primeape Fluffy, because when you look at them, they're basically a giant ball of fur.

I also abstract their names, like I named my Raichu Chuey.

In general, I use descriptive words for their names, with a few exceptions [I named a Ralts Arthur after King Arthur because I wanted to evolve it into Gallade]. Still, you have to choose something you're comfortable with. You could name one after one of your pets, or just something you think sounds cool.

 

[Manchee]

There are pretty basic "catagories" for this, or at least I think so.

One would be general names, like Jack or Lois. I don't prefer these, mostly because it makes them seem too human, but that's just me. I guess it's also like with pets, where naming them with a human name makes them seem a bit more like a person. Though another of these catagories could be human names that are more exotic and less-common. In terms of pets, my cat's name is Dixie, and my dog's name is Roxy. They're easily human names, but they aren't as popular.

You could also name them after well-know people that don't have normal names; in my Fic the one character has a Whismur named Mercutio because he's loud and like to be the center of attention, just like Mercutio from Romeo and Juliet. I also have one of the Pokémon named Zephyr after the Greek god Zephyrus.

And there are the simple names like someone mentioned, where you choose something based on the Pokémon's characteristics; the main character named his Treecko Krypto because he's green (though I really got the name from my best friend's dog named Krypto).

I personally like looking at the Pokémon species name, and trying to get something from there. Another main character is has a Mudkip named Amper, simply taken from Swampert ;)

Hope I could help ^^


BA~

 

[Aladar]

Well, IMO you have to keep in mind the nature of the Pokemon- for example fire/water/electric-based nicknames are considered cliche but your Charizard doesn't need to be called Flame or Blaze- you could call him... Seraph or something related for example. It's still fire-related.

And keep in mind that 10-year old wouldn't probably use "Serpah", but someone like Eusine would for example.

 

[Desert_Rain]

When naming Pokemon, always take into account the trainer's character, like age, gender and personality.

For example, a 10 year old who just started out on his journey is far more likely to give their Pokemon a short, straightforward name, while perhaps a more mature, older trainer would give theirs a more sophisticated name. As for gender, a girl is more likely to give their Pokemon a cute/glamorous name, while boys will probably give them straightforward names that sound strong and tough. Also, it's probably likely that girls will name their Pokemon based on how it looks, such as Bubbles for a Marill, while boys will probably take into account it's type, and name a Marill Hydro, or something like that. With personality, it's pretty obvious but I doubt an evil mastermind would name their Marill Bluey, and that's if they had one. Things like social status comes into this as well; a girl from a rich upper class family will probably give her Pokemon a long glamorous sounding name, while a girl from a lower class working family will go with shorter, simpler names.

As for coming up with the actual names themselves, I usually like to take a characteristic of that Pokemon whether it be physical appearance or type and look up the word in other languages such as French, Spanish or German, and then taking that word and arranging it into a name. You could even take two words and arrange it into a name if you wished. And like Mix said, Wikipedia helps too.

 

[Dragonfree]

The most important thing here should always be what the trainer would actually pick as a name for this Pokémon. If you're writing them, you've got to have something of a feel for them as characters, so just imagine you're them and you've caught this Pokémon and you want to give it a name.

 

[Silverline]

It depends on the author and the character in question, honestly, then anything else. And you don't always need to name a character, as I've read several stories about Pokemon that called them simply by their species names and was perfectly fine with it.

On a Personal note, I tend to do running themes when I'm name my characters. For example, the last time I played through Diamond, I named all my Pokemon after some of my favorite characters from a bunch of different book series, so I ended up with Dor the Torterra, Tyrion the Lucario, and Drizzt the Marrowak as members of my main team.