Cyndaquil is just perfect. I always choose him and I put "Cina" nickname xDU
ima have to agree with you. but only as of recently. in heart gold i went with cyndaquil instead of the the leaf headed hero. the sprites for all three evolutions are really great with quilava being my fav of the series. not to mention extremely useful.
i just started nicknaming my pokemon in black. my favorite so far is semisage as medusa and tepig as cerberus.