Pokemon Names

Are there any Pokemon species names that you like or dislike? Why? Is the name a good or bad pun? Does it have a pleasant or harsh sound? Is it too hard to spell or pronounce? Does it fit the Pokemon really well or really poorly? Perhaps an outside reason?

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Likes

• Vibrava, Milotic: Nice-sounding pronunciations
• Serperior: Mixes the animal and attitude well.
• Excadrill: Specifically for the Exca half. Feels unique.
• Haxorus: Uses harsher sounds at the start. Works for a big, nasty dragon.
• Dewpider: Would have written this off at a glance. Actually sounds okay. Shortens well too.
• Nacli: Likes the chemical element in there. Still sounds okay and not nearly as shoehorned in as "Naclstack".

Dislike

• Wynaut: More of a question than a name.
• Regice: Flows worse than the other Regi- names.
• Purugly: Purr Ugly. Does not sound good.
• Chatot: Seems like an odd -ot ending.
• Lickilicky: Forgives Lickitung, for whatever reason. Possibly dislikes the repetition. Feels less interesting.
• Golurk: Where? On the forums? (Does not mind the "golem" half of the name.)
• Wishiwashi: Unfitting for the Pokemon. Contains "wash", therefore some Water type. Who still needs a name? That fish.
• Guzzlord: The lord of guzzling? Technically fitting, but not great.
• Sneaseler: Thinks of it as a verb.
• Sandy Shocks: Practically a synonym for its typing. Completely ignores the magnets and anything unique about the Pokemon.
• Iron Jugulis: Copy/pastes the "Iron" part, first of all. Then..."Jugulis"? Who knew what that was referring to before looking it up?

This is a neat topic idea! I'll try to follow the same-ish style of layout.

Names I like for whatever reason:

Names that I find especially cute- Eevee, Chikorita, Lilligant, Vikavolt, Mimikyu, Chi-Yu.

Names that I find especially fun or funny to say- Porygon, Meganium, Crobat, Wurmple, Lileep, Kecleon, Spheal, Bagon, Mothim, Pachirisu, Finneon(sweetroll for Finneon), Lickilicky, Darmanitan, Cofagrigus(a little on the convoluted spelling side, but I like it anyway), Solosis, Barbaracle, Oricorio, Komala, Wooloo, Tandemaus, Naclstack(if only because it makes me think of the phrase 'pajama rack Naclstack' and that makes me laugh), Dondozo.

Names that I find especially cool- Ampharos, Altaria, Jirachi, Staravia, Drapion, Magmortar(the Pokemon's kinda 'eh' but the name is great), Escavalier, Galvantula, Hydreigon, Volcanion, Decidueye, Primarina, Hakamo-o, Perrserker, Basculegion, Meowscarada.

Names I don't like for whatever reason:

Names in common with Deva (for almost if not the exact same reasons, otherwise i wouldn't just clump these all together out of order like this)- Wynaut, Regice, Purugly, Wishiwashi, Sneaseler(awful name), Guzzlord(the worst one).

Names that I think are either ridiculously overcomplicated to say or to spell- Aerodactyl, Girafarig, Gorebyss, Relicanth, Musharna, Alomomola, Aromatisse, Dragalge, Pyukumuku, Togedemaru, Magearna, Blacephalon, Tarountula, Grafaiai, Farigiraf.

Names that I think are either too silly or just plain stupid- Snubbull, Suicune, Ho-oh, Salamence, Rayquaza(only after hearing it's 'correct' pronunciation), Bidoof(it's name does it no favors), Chingling, Giratina(the 'official' pronunciation), Arceus(same deal as Rayquaza & Giratina), Purrloin(I refuse to say why), Simipour, Bouffalant, Flabébé, Florges, Gogoat, Ribombee, Morelull(just. plain. stupid.), Type: Null, Dhelmise, Stakataka, Rolycoly, Mr. Rime, Stonjourner, Morpeko(really not fond of this one), Duraludon, Zacian, Zamazenta, Overqwil(puts on sunglasses), Lechonk, Pawmot, Mabosstiff(might be a little of my Scar/Vi story issue bleeding in here), Shroodle, Wugtrio, Bombirdier, Dudunsparce,

I could make a completely separate list of just names the internet ruined for me, but I'll save that for another time lol. (could also make a list of 'lacking vs unnecessary I's' in Pokemon's names, but I'll leave that one alone)

Perhaps the people above might like Sneasler more if they stop misspelling it as Sneaseler. :femme:
Eh, I'm not big on Sneasler as a name either. To me it just feels kinda lazy as a name for a new evo.

Also dislike a lot of the names of Pokemon that grow a head or two upon evolving. You know, like:
Diglett -> Dugtrio.
Doduo -> Dodrio
Wiglett -> Wugtrio
Deino -> Zweilous -> Hydreigon.

Purugly. Mainly dislike it as I disagree with it being ugly. It's not gonna win any beauty contests, but calling it ugly is too much imo.

Mr. Mime. It just feels awkward as heck since they can be both genders, resulting in 'female Mr. Mime'. If they insisted on having Mr. in the name they should've just made it a male only Pokemon like they did with Tauros. Would personally have preferred a different name altogether though. I kinda like it's German name 'Pantimos'.
They even chose to repeat their folly when they made Mr. Rime when they could've called it anything else.

Don't like the Paradoxes' names either, aside from Koraidon/Miraidon. Not gonna type them all, but for example Scream Tail, Brute Bonnet, Iron Hands, Iron Jugulis, etc. etc.

Annihilape. I get the pun, but it just doesn't feel like a fitting name to me, nor does it sound cool to me.


As for names I do like:
Empoleon, Honchkrow & Skuntank - They just sound cool to me.
Lumineon sounds pretty.
Krookodile just sounds badass.
Aurorus sounds pretty.
Perrserker. I'm indifferent on the mon itself, but it's name is actually kinda cool.
Basculegion also just sounds badass.
Bombirdier just sounds cool.

And probably more, but these came to mind fast.

Sneasler and Gurdurr. The latter especially just sounds so....derpy. My least favorite name in the series. :x

I agree with ReKoil in that I dislike the names of the Paradox Pokemon outside of the box legends; they're weird and abstract, but not in a good way.

Likes: Gigalith, Mimikyu, Relicanth, the entire Hydreigon line, Crawdaunt, and nearly all the starters and their evolutions. Really, I love 90% of Pokemon names from Johto onward, so I'd go all day if I listed everything I liked.

My favorite name would probably be Torterra, but it's really hard to pick a favorite.

Dislikes: Empoleon and Kangaskhan (Naming Pokemon after IRL historical figures is bad, doubly so for genocidal war criminals like Genghis Khan). Smolive and Lechonk (These two are going to be painfully dated in a decade), Pachirisu, Togedemaru (Really should've had localized names), Mr. Mime/Rime (Not even an exclusively-male species), the two Nidoran (I think they should have their own names), Golem, Seel, Muk, Cloyster, Onix, Hypno, Krabby, Electrode, Jynx, Pinsir, Ditto, Mew, Unown ("English word with maybe a minor spelling difference that's still a homophone to the original" is the worst name trend Pokemon ever had, and I'm glad it was almost entirely dropped after Gen 1), Iron Bundle/Hands/Jugulis/Moth/Thorns (All of these start with "Iron" when the Scarlet Paradoxes get individual first words. Iron Treads gets a pass since it's actually part Steel, though.)

If I had to give a single least favorite name, I'd go with Kangaskhan. I've studied enough history to utterly despise its namesake.

Not something i put too much thought into, unless they are especially bad. Even then not too many fit that bill, the only ones i can think of are grookey and thwacky which are just entirely stupid names

Dislikes: Mr. Mime/Rime (Not even an exclusively-male species)

If I had to give a single least favorite name, I'd go with Kangaskhan. I've studied enough history to utterly despise its namesake.

Click to expand...

I get you on Kangaskhan, both for her war criminal namesake and the fact that the Pokemon is maternal and thus nothing like her namesake.

Mr. Mime is actually called Barrier'd in Japanese - that's why when they added genders in Gen 2, they made female Mr. Mimes. (Hoppip can use Splash for a similar reason - the move is called Hop in Japanese).

My favorite Pokemon names are Magcargo and Roggenrola. My least favorites are Muk and Seel.

What Pokémon names do you like? Feel free to choose nice-sounding ones from any language if you like it - doesn't have to just be English!

Chimecho has always had the best sounding name to me, it just sounds calming! Golisopod also has a very intimidating name imo.

Porygon has always been a fun name for me to say.

One of my favourite names from recent generations is Wishiwashi, because it works on so many levels. "Wishy-washy" is a very old term that my parents used to use when I was a kid to describe something small and pitiful, and "iwashi" is Japanese for sardine so that's a cool little reference. So it's a small, pathetic little fish that comes together with others to get stronger. If it could actually learn Wish it'd be perfect. Missed opportunity there.

As for ones I don't like...I think the Klink line is a little bit too on the nose. Same with Seel and Dewgong. I'm also not a huge fan of Pokemon names that are descriptions rather than actual names. So that'd be Type: Null and the Paradox Pokemon. I understand the etymology behind them, but I don't agree with it. Team Plasma didn't give Genesect a rubbish codename, and I'm pretty sure the Pokemon it started out as wasn't called that. It worked with Mewtwo, but it feels like they pushed their luck with the concept a little too much with recent generations. I'm not a huge fan of the Jangmo-o line's names either, or the Tapus.

Honestly, I have to say that those that disrespect the literature reference of the names Ho-oh, Girafarig, and Farigiraf have something to be ashamed for, as these names are meant to be difficult to say/be 'stupid' because as A Grade 12 student with my best grades being in English, these three names have this fact in common: they are all Palindromes. This means that they are spelled exactly the same both forwards and backwards. Ik, the other names in those lists have my share of the hate, but personally I want to see more pokemon with palindromic names bc they are much easier to spell than certain names out there, like Yveltal and Zwellous. Also, both Girafarig and Farigiraf have the exact same letters and length, and on top of that the core of both names, "Giraf--" is short for the word "giraffe", so if anything, I admire Game Freak for their clever names in this regard.

Like:
Magmortar
Bombirdier
Blastoise
Toucannon
Clawitzer (should I be worried about this?)
Arcanine
Ampharos
Lumineon
Rampardos
Galvantula
Cofagrigus
Virizion
Delphox
Amaura
Basculegion
Arboliva
Flamigo

Dislike:
Persian
Golem
Seaking
Hitmonchan
Lugia
Regice
Gurdurr
The Klink line
Type: Null
Mr. Mime & Mr. Rime
Cursola
Dudunsparce
The Pawmi line
The four Ruinous legendaries
All 'Iron' Paradoxes
All convergent species