Nicknaming themes!

Pendraflare

    • 6,268
    Posts
    11
    Years
    There are plenty of people who like to nickname their Pokémon for various reasons - because it's fun, it helps you feel closer to them, or you just think some nicknames sound really cool. But in your playthroughs, have you ever given your Pokémon's names themes off of certain things? There are some used commonly, but others that some people haven't really thought about. And for that matter, what are some of your favorite names that you got out of that naming theme?

    That said, my White 2 Challenge Mode Wedlocke I did a year ago was the first play I did that had me using a real naming theme - utilizing a list of modern constellations. My favorite name that I used throughout that challenge was probably that of my Absol, Crux, who came onto the team pretty late in the game but was a major player against the Elite Four and Iris. The name meant "Southern cross", and given how many slashing attacks Absol learns I thought it was a really cool fit for it.

    One I did not long after, in Heart Gold, had me naming Pokémon after musical instruments. The name I used and liked the most in that one was Marimba, my Quagsire's. There are quite a few Water-type Pokémon that to me give off a sort of Mexican vibe, and Quagsire is one of them, so I thought the name Marimba would fit it well, and it sounded fun when I used her.

    I could name a couple more, but these are two I liked a lot. How about you? What naming themes have you gone with before? Discuss.
     
    I named only one Pokemon, Shiny Umbreon, in memory of my cat that got lost. Im carrying it in my Pokewalker.
    Kinda cheesy but if you say it out loud I have a team full of not-very-cheesy-Pokemon to kick anyone's ass ^^
     
    I don't often use themes but I tried - and succeded - in Pokemon Crystal Pikachu edition.

    he theme was : chemistry!
    Yes I was in 2nd grade studies in this domain and I tried to give right nicknames related to chemistry. It gave for instance :
    - Siloxan the Starmie ('cause silica -> sand -> starfish)
    - Furan the Magcargo (actually furanne is a hazardous molecula but Magcargo isn't so it's a fail)
    - Polonium the Golduck ('cause radioactive -> duck -> duck with psychic powers)
    - KCN the Gengar ('cause Cyanide isn't a gentle thing and neither is Gengar)
    - Glycerin the Lickitung ('cause saliva -> EWWWW -> glycerin)
    - Auris the Ho-Oh (gold bird -> savant name for Gold)
    - Methylium the Beedrill (cause methylium is a highly-reactive cation, and so is Beedrill)
    - Ether the Gastly (evaporates and all)

    ...among others. Yep dat's fun isn't it.
     
    In X I gave my party French names as Kalos is France (Apart from Fennikin who I called Rommel because Rommels nickname was the Desert Fox and Fennikin is a desert fox/fennec fox).

    [FONT=&quot]In Alpha Sapphire I gave my Party Japanese names as Hoenn is Kyushu. [/FONT]
     
    I love to nickname my Pokemon, but I don't always follow a theme. I usually do in challenges, though. For the favorite challenge on Black years ago, I named all my Pokemon after songs by The Mars Volta. For holiday themed challenges, I stick with names that fit what the Pokemon represents (Menorah for Chandelure in the Hanukkah challenge, for example). For monocolor, I use different shades of whatever color I'm playing with.

    Currently, I'm doing a Wonderlocke, but I can't name anyone per se, so I give them names in my updates. I'm doing a food theme for them. I don't know why. I just am. lol
     
    I've been nicknaming my Pokemon since White 2, and I always use the theme of 'whatever happens to pop into my head at the time (or in about an hour when I finally come up with something and open my DS back up).' I do try to keep whatever I come up with something related to the Pokemon's type or twist its actual name around into something else, but I'm usually not that successful at it and my Pokemon end up with completely random names.
     
    Nicknames are always fun!

    Well, let's see here..

    in Y I don't think I had a specific theme, though I seemed to favor naming a good chunk of my team after my various RP characters (IE, my Fennekin was a female, so I named her Hazel, since my character Hazel is also a fox)

    First file for X, I went with either Anime themed, Japanese that fits, or failing that... food. I like to RP while playing Pokemon, and the character I based this save on would totally name them like that.

    Second X file had really simple names since I had to work with a 6 character limit as I set it to Japanese. So I come up with silly names like Buggu, Hoggu, Cannon...

    and my AS file, I finally brought back my original "character" for Pokemon, for obvious reasons. named my Torchic Scorcher, since I wanted to rename my original Blaziken to that.. to late, transferred it to Pearl :p
    The rest I usually tried to find a fitting name for them that had soemthing to do with Dragons... or fire, if they're fire types.
    Not gonna lie though, I named a few of 'em after some other RP characters (IE, Ralf the Swablu, since Ralf would totally have one!)


    Sooooo yeah, depends on what I feel the Character I'm using would go for.
     
    My themes tend to run towards the literature-based. Before, I've named Pokemon after characters in a fantasy book series I was reading. Currently, in my Black Nuzlocke, I'm naming Pokemon after Shakespearean characters. I haven't gotten too far in the game, but I do like the name "Launce" for my Lillipup.
     
    When it comes to me nicknaming members of my Pokemon teams, I always use a theme for the nicknames. I have used the following themes in the following games:
    Star Wars Republic Commando Squads (Game: Blue)
    Decepticons (Game: Soul Silver)
    Star Wars Sith Lords (Game: Sapphire)
    World Leaders (Game: Platinum)
    Legendary Weapons (Game: White)
    Anti-Heroes (Game: White 2)
    World War II Ships (Game: X)
    Star Wars Jedi (Game: Alpha Sapphire)
     
    I'll nickname my pokemon if possible, but I usually don't follow a very specific theme. Rather, I'll just name them based on whatever I feel like at the time or whatever feels best...even if it's just a pun. For instance, looking back at some of my names, I apparently have a Drilbur in my black version named Clawdius. Oh boy.

    So pretty much it's basically just "let's make a name based on some attribute of the pokemon". Like the chingling I named Carillon (since it's a bell...hah). Or the purrloin I named Grabbie (was thinking Abby as a name + Grab) Although if I can make a reference to something else, then I will. Can be a reference from anything, too - anime, movie, another video game. Doesn't really matter.

    Although sometimes I'll just make up a totally random name that sounds good. Don't really have any examples of that that I remember by now though.
     
    In no particular order, some of the nicknaming themes in the past that I've done include variants of hockey team names/cities, anagrams, international Pokemon names, and french descriptive words. I'm sure that I've done others as well, but that's all I can think of off the top of my head.

    Currently, I've been naming all of my 6th gen Pokemon after celestial bodies in our solar system (mainly planets, dwarf planets, and moons). Not only have I been naming them after those, but I try and get the origin of the name to match up with a Pokemon as well. Some examples include an Azumarill named Oberon (moon of Uranus + king of the fairies), a Chesnaught named Ceres (dwarf planet + goddess of agriculture), and an Altaria named Kari (moon of Saturn + god of wind).
     
    I like to find nicknames with inspiration from the Pokemon's characteristics or the lore covered in their Dex entries. I have a Rotom named Voltergeist (volt + poltergeist). Sometimes, I tend to have anime themes. Like I nicknamed my Aegislash "Erza Scarlet" and Weavile "Gray" which are Fairy Tail character names.
     
    In real life, we don't often refer to a cat as "cat," dog "dog," nor hamster as "hamster." If they are our pets, we have tendency to name them. I could see the same applying in Pokémon, so in a lot of ways, having nicknaming system incorporated into these games does make a lot of sense.

    Do I utilize this feature often, though? Unfortunately, I don't. It's not much of a hassle to use it or anything, but every time this option pops whenever capturing new Pokémon and whatnot, I always wind up skipping, even if I'm planning to; it's become sort of a habit, really. I wish it weren't like this!

    I've definitely nicked a few of my Pokémon before, however, and of all those that I have, I'd say my most favorite nickname would likely have to be... Warturtle, which was a Blastoise. It might not be very creative, but the time, I'd found it to be sort of fitting for the Pokémon.
     
    In my first game, Diamond, I named my Pokémon after their species, because I was inspirationless then, but still wanted to nickname them. In SoulSilver I gave my Pokémon human names. In Emerald I named my Pokémon after their species, but not directly (Blaziken called Ninja, Beautifly called BugInGame, Linoone called Collector). In a German FireRed, I didn't give any nicknames, because the German names count as nicknames in some way. I did give nicknames, human names, to the Pokémon I raised from an egg. There are also a few games in which I was to lazy to give nicknames.
    In challenges I theme the nicknames to the challenges. In Chandelure's Festival of Lights I nicknamed the Pokémon after the role they have in the team. In soloruns I give random nicknames. Swampert was called Burukari, because that sounded cool to me. Raticate was called Top, to prove it was evolved from a top percentage Rattata. Linoone was called Plush, because I thought that suited well.
     
    Yes, themes are key in nicknames. Whatever the pokemon is, I try to relate it to the actual pokemon species as much as possible. It's just fun. Like I named my Talonflame twitter. Ain't it a nice name?
     
    I always have to nickname my team, but random encounters that I caught or static Pokemon are usually never named. My theme changes:
    Yellow: Type Themed and Gender Themed('a' for girl 'o' for boy)
    Thundra the Pikachu
    Poisona the NidoranF
    Firo the Charmander     etc
    Silver/SoulSilver: I named them based on their final evo:
    Furo the Feraligatr
    Nono the Noctowl
    Catia the Crobat
    Toto the Togekiss     etc
    Sapphire: I actually didn't nickname these.

    Diamond: My team had namd based off whatever I was feeling at the time. Also, F, P, J, N, M, S are siblings' names' first letters.
    Flop the Empoleon
    Pal the Bibarel
    Jy the Crobat     etc
    White: I named them whatever came into my head.
    Bowler the Samorrott
    Rost the Stoutland
    Ira the Simisear     etc
    White 2: Same as Diamond
    Femee the Serperior
    Pin the Liepard
    Jep the UnfeasantF     etc
    Y: Same as Diamond
    Felix the Chesnaught
    Pippi the Pidgeot
    Jem the Venusaur     etc
    AlphaSapphire: Randomly named.
    Fett the Swampert
    Buggy III the Dustox(named after my nuzlocked Beautifly. :()
    Bunno the Gardevoir     etc

    But sometimes I use anime themes, one of my Random Challenges uses Pokemon named after Katekyo Hitman Reborn names. Still need to catch MiniMosca the Heracross. XD
     
    i never gave nicknames to my pokémon before oras and xy. now i tend to give them cutesy names; mostly food-related. :>
     
    Last edited:
    As a kid I never used nicknames. As an adult I always nick name my Pokemon. I name Pokemon after my favorite anime, manga, video game, visual novel, movie, and TV show characters. I also nickname Pokemon after my friends as well
     
    You must log in or register to reply here.
    Back
    Top