Nickname discussion

[Stallmory]

I found someone on the ladder who nicknamed his Rotom-W Washington. Found it really funny.


In my case, I've been naming my Pokémon with funny or something-related names. Garfield the Landorus-T, Thragtusk the Mamoswine (Magic: The Gathering reference), Metabee the (shiny) Mega Scizor, Batman the Gliscor (not very original, but fought against someone's Batwoman, a female Gliscor, once, and found it funny), Godzilla the Tyranitar, Kabuterimon the Heracross (or the shiny Mega Pinsir), Chun Li the Mienshao, Hulk the shiny Machamp, Mr. Krabs the Crawdaunt, Usain Bolt, the (shiny) Deoxys-Speed (he seems to "wear" Jamaica's colors too, so...) and of course Stallmory the Skarmory, for obvious reasons.

And:

Mr. Driller (Escavalier) lol references. And it knows Drill Run (YES I KNOW EXCADRILL WOULD FIT THE NAME BETTER)

I did nickname my Excadrill that (in Spanish, but still)!

 

[Lady Vader]

Don't hate Arsenic, it is used in chicken feed.

Arsenic has been used to murder people for centuries if not longer.

Batman the Gliscor (not very original, but fought against someone's Batwoman, a female Gliscor, once, and found it funny), Godzilla the Tyranitar

I did the same thing! Well, my Gliscor is named "The Batman", but close enough.
I also sorta reused the Godzilla nickname on my Goodra: Goozilla.

Hulk the shiny Machamp,

My ex-girlfriend wanted to do the same thing.

And I just remembered the most obscure nickname I've ever come up with. I had a Curse Ferrothorn and I named it Michael. Why? It's a reference to the Curse of the Thorn from the movie Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers*. Get it? Curse? Ferrothorn?

*I don't like this movie, yet I reference it anyway.

 

[Petrico94]

I found this guy who named some of his pokemon off of Greek gods
Hades- Krokodile
Poseidon- Kingdra
Aphrodite- Florges
Ares- Heracross
Athena- PorygonZ

 

[stage7_4]

I try to nickname everything and most aren't super creative beyond popular culture references and common mythological gods/spirits/creatures. And then there was that one time I made an entire team nicknamed after the Muppet's Electric Mayhem, but the OP wants creativity so I'll list a few I'm proud of:

Thénardier the Mandibuzz, fitting name for a vulture after the character in Les Miserables.
Pele the Heatran, a Hawaiian fire goddess (it's also a female Heatran).
B-17 the Skarmory, after the Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress, a bomber from WWII. B-52 Stratofortress is a good one but leads itself to too many rock lobster and love shack jokes.

There's is something to be said for humor names though. I like Carlton the Hitmontop (look at his animation) and there's this tumblr joke going around where Space Jam the Steelix(?) wants to learn Slam.

 

[Lady Vader]

Thénardier the Mandibuzz

"There's a little gold
Stuck into a tooth.
Pardon me, monsieur,
You won't be needing this no more"
Thénardier uses Knock Off!
Corpse's Nugget was knocked off!

 

[stage7_4]

I can't stop laughing.

 

[-NLMRY-]

1) Subtlety is important in nicknaming. "Darkness" the umbreon is simply lame, it's easy to see. Umbreon is black and associated with night, it's almost synonymous with umbreon's nature and name to call it darkness. This lacks any sort of subtlety that may excite the namer or the reader! Part of the enjoyment of clever nicknaming is to feel smart and included by correctly understanding why something is nicknamed as it is.

2) Aesthetics are important. Aesthetics can be seen as how much a word or combination of words is pleasing to the ears.

3) Ease of interpretation. People have to be able to have a chance of understanding what you're trying to say with a name. I see a lot of people that give their Pokemon names of characters or people that they like, but what good is this if no one understands what you mean by this? This guideline seems counter to 1, but it merely states that you need to strike a reasonable balance.

I agree with these guidelines, and it's because I don't feel that I ever meet them that I never nickname Pokémon. I don't like to simply nickname them after other characters I like, such as Reptar the Tyranitar, which I've seen quite a bit. One I came up with that I do like is Red Rocket the Latias. Yes, it's somewhat crude if you get the joke. The joke is from the early seasons of South Park, and it's what the kids called male dog genitalia. I think the reference is subtle enough at this point, given that that particular episode debuted thirteen years ago, to still be funny if you get it and Lati@s look like rockets and Latias is red. There ya go.

 

[Lady Vader]

I can't stop laughing.

Oh, I've had Ditto (and other Pokémon) named things like "mom" and "girlfriend". Actually, I had both "mom" and "girlfriend" in the Day Care at the same time, so the Day Care Man commented that "Your mom and girlfriend are getting along!"

 

[Petrico94]

Anyone got a good name for a Metagross?

 

[Mygavolt]

there's this tumblr joke going around where Space Jam the Steelix(?) wants to learn Slam.

Something like this? (DISCLAIMER: This is not my image.)

That matter aside, there are four main categories to which most of my nicknames belong: simple (but sometimes obscure) references, portmanteaus, names with multiple meanings, and obvious/random ones (most of which are not worth mentioning).

Simple (but sometimes obscure) references:

• Yune (Fletchling): character in Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn who is first seen in the form of a small bird traveling with Micaiah (additional information here)
• Goku Seifuku (Garchomp): reference to the uniforms in the anime Kill la Kill that have stars on them (there's a star on Garchomp's head) and grant the wearer power (Garchomp is freaking powerful)
• Floraxion (Venusaur): an enemy from Final Fantasy Tactics A2 (additional information here)
• Char B1 (Mega Aggron): It's obvious how much of a tank Mega Aggron is. Since I play the French version of Pokémon Y, I decided to search for the name of a French tank on Wikipedia. Char B1 is what I came up with.
• Splinter (Mienshao): bears a striking resemblance to Splinter the Rat from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

Portmanteaus:

• Vullcrap (Vullaby): its name combined with "bull crap", merely for humorous effect
• Kornheizard (Mega Charizard Y): combination of Kornheiser (in reference to the meme Tony Kornheiser's Why) and the last syllable of Charizard's name
• Ossassin (Marowak): Marowak's French name (Ossatueur) combined with "assassin"; intended to be a Trick Room sweeper
• Medlee (female Hawlucha): combination of Medli (from TLoZ: Wind Waker) and famous fighter Bruce Lee...what else are you supposed to name a female Hawlucha?
• MarziPumpkin (female Gourgeist): combination of Marzipan (who has a broom-like composure, feminine hair, and a lack of limbs in common with Gourgeist (ignoring the resemblance of Gourgeist's hair to a pair of arms)) and pumpkin
• Nowivern (female Noivern): its name combined with Nowi, a Fire Emblem character who can transform into a dragon

Names with multiple meanings:

• Limonade (Stunfisk): Its French name is Limonde, which looks a lot like "limonade" (lemonade). Another thing to note is that Discharge (level 25 move) in French is Coup d'Jus (which looks roughly like "cup of juice", and lemonade is basically lemon juice).
• Champi Suave (shiny Paras): Champi Suave is the French name of the item Balm Mushroom, making reference to both its rarity (it was caught in a Friend Safari, but still...) and the mushrooms on its back.
• Démolass (female Houndoom): Its French name is Démolosse, so my original intent was to twist it in reference to the Demoman from Team Fortress 2, but when I realized it was female, it became Démolass, which actually looks strikingly similar to Démolosse.
• Crooked (shiny Mandibuzz): This name is a nod to the music group Them Crooked Vultures (whom I only know because of Guitar Hero) as well as the implication of "crooked" being another term for "abnormal" (and that's what shiny Pokémon are).

A few obvious/random ones:

• Mega Barney (Nidoking): obvious dual reference to Mega Evolution and Barney the Dinosaur (they're both purple, after all)
• Tay Zonday (Politoed): Chocolate raiiin...
• Fla Fla Time (Flabébé and evolutions): The first two syllables of the Japanese names of Flabébé and its evolutions are "fura", which strikingly resemble "fuwa". This brings to mind the song "Fuwa Fuwa Time" from the anime K-On, hence where the nickname comes from.
• Lil' Orange (Dedenne): The name Dedenne is very similar to that of Dende, a character from Dragonball Z who is often called "Lil' Green" in the abridged series.
• Ogreload (Drapion): It's an ogre scorpion that I unintentionally hatched with 6 perfect IVs instead of the regular 5, so you could call it an IV overload...or, to make it punny, IV ogreload. (DISCLAIMER: I did not come up with this pun by myself.)
• Get LOCKy (Klefki): obvious triple reference to Daft Punk's "Get Lucky", the association of keys with locks, and Klefki's tendency to rely on luck (I mean, it practically needs Thunder Wave to get by)
• R Kelly (Mega Pinsir): He believes he can fly...
• Chicken Pox (Talonflame): It's a bird...chicken...thing...with spots that make it look like it has chicken pox.

 

[Karxrida]

I like to make my nicknames be references or shout-outs to my favorite video games, movies, or whatnot, but I don't like to be obvious about it since I hate unoriginal names (like Blaze the [insert Fire-type here]).

Some examples:
I named my Lucario "Mark" after Luke Skywalker's actor Mark Hamill. That way I can have my reference without people realizing it :3.
I named my Politoed "Lockwood", after Don Lockwood from the movie Singin' In The Rain.
"Ripley" the Gliscor after Ellen Ripley from the Alien movies since I always thought Gliscor kinda looked like a Facehugger from that franchise.
"Devlin" the Bisharp, named after Duke Devlin from Yu-Gi-Oh since the mon reminds me of him for some reason. Also, "slice and dice".

 

[stage7_4]

Something like this? (DISCLAIMER: This is not my image.)

Yep. That's the one!

Any Lackadaisy fans? I named my male Meowstic after Mordecai the tuxedo-cat.

 

[Hclegend]

Hclegend nicknames: Rain edition
SongOfStorms (Politoed) Yes i went there. huehue
Yama (Kabutops) Named after the Hindu lord of death for the lols
Susanoo (Helioisk) I like Okami. Any questions?

And now for something completely different!
Hades (Gengar) Not because Hades is the god of the underworld. Because THIS Gengar is an absolute troll. So its Hades from Kid Icarus Uprising XD

 

[Mova]

Here are some nicknames for some Pokemon I have used in my recent past, and plan to use to complete the Pokedex.

Mozilla the Delphox (Reference to a certain Internet browser.)
Pikablu the Azumarill (It's a blue Pikachu-like creature.)
Marluxia or Chloroman the Venusaur (The former is a Kingdom Hearts reference, while the latter refers to Bulbasaur's Hidden Ability.)
Hexcalibur the Aegislash (Self-explanatory.)
Ducky or Larxene (if female), Basilisk (if male) the Heliolisk (The first is a Land Before Time reference, the second a KH reference, and the third is just a lizard that can ride across water.)
Nacho the Hawlucha (Nacho Libre)

I have some more that I may use for CAPs, such as the following:

Volumina the Cyclohm (Volt + Lumina, which is a Latin word for light, if I recall correctly.)
Dagon or Cthulhu the Volkraken (Lovecraftian characters.)

 

[KingHeracrossTheBug]

Most of the time I use the Japanese names (for example, Hydreigon would be Sazandora), something that's related to it (for example, Blaziken would be KFC :p), or just something silly I come up with (example being Charizard named Skyrim and Swampert DJ Swampy ._. Yeah, I know).

 

[Lady Vader]

Dagon or Cthulhu the Volkraken (Lovecraftian characters.)

When I was making an Uber team, I named my Giratina-Origin "Lovecraft". Other nicknames from the attempt to build that team are:
Pele the Heatran (named after the Hawaiian volcano goddess)
Cthulhu the Tentacruel (need I even say why?)
Crom the Arceus-Steel (after the God of Steel from the original Conan the Barbarian movie)
Leviathan the Palkia
Silver the Lugia (okay, that wasn't the best one)

I tried to give them all epic names to go with their stats. Even

SPOILERS!!!

Yuno the Sylveon, who is on that team

is named after a deity.

 

[stage7_4]

I don't know how "creative" it is just to name it after a simple thing in another language but,

I've got a Roserade named Blumenkranz now (it means "floral wreath" in German). I considered blumengarten, or flower garden, but didn't like how it sounded.

Then I found an awesome (if villainous) leitmotif to go with it so now the name is just cool (any Kill la Kill fans?)

 

[#DefyingGravity]

I really like anime/Japan nicknames like metagross = Hitachi

 

[KingHeracrossTheBug]

Also I named my Arceus on Pokemon Black "Christ"

 

[PSDuckie]

All of my Pokemon in my mono-blue Sapphire run for OI Plays are named after characters from the Warcraft series:

• Varian the Marshtomp is named after the King of Stormwind City in World of Warcraft.
• Valeera the Surskit is named after the Rogue hero in Hearthstone, as she was extremely hard to find, let alone catch!
• Velen the Taillow is named after the leader of the Draenei, again from World of Warcraft.
• Antonidas the Tentacool is named after the leader of the Kirin Tor mages from Warcraft 3.

 

[SnoopingGil]

I usually try to follow some kind of silly nicknaming scheme within each game. For X and Y, most of my team members' names were related to some kind of organelle/other cell-related thing:

• Thyla the Venusaur - thylakoid
• Alyssa the Aegislash - lysosome
• Maya the Staraptor - myosin
• Celia the Mienshao - cilia
• Roxie the Reuniclus - peroxisome

If you're wondering why they're all girls, having a mostly-female team is something that tends to happen to me...

 

[11pikabro]

Nicknaming Pokémon, for me, has always been something of a fun chore. Some of my Pokémon have nice relevant nicknames, while others are can be a bit more personal or make me wonder, "Why'd I nickname it this again?". Here are some of my favorites:

• Nylon the Linoone--because I like giving it the Silk Scarf. Might as well call the one I'll catch in OR/AS Linen to continue the fabric motif.
• Gyarardelli the Gyarados--a Dark-type Mega Evolution deserves some Ghirardelli dark chocolate.
• Sweetspot the Combee--it's yellow w/ black stripes, brings honey and swings for the fences, a Pokémon that'd favor a certain Pokémon baseball fan.
• doomHound the Houndoom--it's Pokémon Stadium-inspired and still sounds cool.
• Electrolux the Rotom-W
  
• Kool-Aid the Articuno--it really was a "cool aid" in my in-game adventures.
• Lucky Lanturn--Lanturn always brightened my day in two ways: it's natural lighting and the incredible display of hax it kept sending to opponents.

Normally what I do is nickname the Pokémon I feel were important or valuable to my experiences in-game. The name is almost like a special ribbon I give to my Pokémon out of merit and endearment.

 

[noknuckles]

Whenever possible, I like to go with cheesy puns, though depending on mood I might name them whatever comes to mind at the moment. This could be a song, a random word, or a made up string of syllables. Sometimes I just like to name them Bob (eg. Boblax the Snorlax) Anyway, some examples of puns:

Barbara the Ferrothorn - Barbs
Moorisa the Miltank - Moo + Marisa
Migooel the Goodra - Miguel + Goo
Carlooze the Muk - Carlos (that's me) + Ooze

Then there are names that are so ridiculously stupid that it may put a smile on people's faces:
Lady Gar Gar the Gardevoir
Justin Beeber the Vespiquen
Justin Beaver the Bidoof may be more appropriate
Milo Cyrus the Milotic - It seems like every other NU game I see Miley Cyrus the Lickilicky
Justin Timburrlake the Conkeldurr/Gurdur/Timburr
Keldeo Clarkson
Taillow Swift the Swellow

 

[LittleIslander]

Racine the Frosslass - Very obscure for the most part but comes from the similarities of a local ghost story and Yuki-onna.

Anyone got a good name for a Metagross?

Nadrian/Ned for Mega Metagross and Seymour for solely normal Metagross - Based on inventors/important contributors to DNA Nanotechnology/Computers (Hence Mega Metagross) and Supercomputers (Origin of Metagross).

 

[TheBluRaichu]

Gardevoir: Gardewhore (I'm so creative!).
Blissey: Swiss Bliss (I was hungry at the time).
Bellossom: Bellawesome (I love Bellossom!).