The name rater's tent~ (Pokémon nicknames in your writing)

For Foul Play I have some trainers give Pokemon nicknames! For the most part I give them freedom on nicknaming their Pokemon, though there has been a few trainers where I have them with a theme. For Grimsley usually terms related to gambling and risk/chance (Blackjack, Roulette, and Queen for instance). Acerola I have her give cute Pokemon names, and Molayne would've been names based off stars, planets, and astronomy.

I always use nicknames when writing in a Pokemon setting just because it makes sense and makes differentiating between members of the same species much easier. I will sometimes use thematic naming schemes for teams ie. Kade's birds were all named after cloud formations, Eloy's team are named after occupations/roles in society, Layla's team are all named for famous women etc etc. It's not something I always do though, just if it feels right for the character.

I actually use nicknames far less than most people I think. Casey began without nicknaming any of his Pokémon, Sorley has only nicknamed one of theirs, none of my gym leaders in S1 have nicknamed theirs, Casey's sister very specifically doesn't nickname hers.... I don't know why I do this? Honestly, not nicknaming is kind of weird- it's like calling your dog just "Dog"- but perhaps it's because I'm still most influenced by the anime, and the anime rarely uses nicknames. Also, in the case of my gym leaders... maybe I feel it's more professional for them not to nickname, in a way?

But also I'm just kind of trash at nicknaming lmao. My Pokémon in-game are all just whatever human name I pull out of thin air (with some exceptions for memes and funny names). Theme naming always feels weird to do for me somehow but tbh it's almost better than not doing a theme... man I really don't know ahaha. Casey first named his Charmander after a hot sauce and the rest followed in being named after condiments/spices. Sorley calls their Misdreavus "Missy", but that's only short for his species name. Kel's only mentioned Pokémon is Topaz but I assume the rest are also gems or similar. I've never mentioned Harper nicknaming his Pokémon or not iirc? Marie takes one syllable from the species name and adds -ie to it to make it match her own name.

I dunno. Maybe I should nickname more. In the case of NPCs, I feel like nicknames make it harder to keep track of what's happening in a battle unless you as a writer make a point to have the NPC say the nickname and the narrative say the species name? It almost feels not worth it to have the nickname at all.