How important are nicknames to you?

Nicknames?


  • Total voters
    156
Status
Not open for further replies.
A big part of the games but one I very often see ignored: nicknames.

Do you name your pokémon? Where and how do you get their names? Do you think they add something to the game or are they just cosmetic? Your thoughts?
 
I always name my Pokemon. It adds a further level of attachment to them, and I know someone's going to say "lol you get attached to pixels", but I don't think anyone sees Pokemon as just a number.
 

Idyll

xD
is a Tutoris an official Team Rateris a Community Contributoris a Top Tiering Contributoris a Top Contributoris a Smogon Media Contributoris a Site Content Manager Alumnusis a Top Social Media Contributor Alumnusis a Community Leader Alumnus
RBTT Champion
Hmm, I do nickname my mons, but only the ones I really use. I don't name the dex fodder mons at all (FRLG) save for a special few. The names that I give out depend on my mood really; I have a Squirtle that I named "Bartolomeo" sitting in the box on a FR run of mine while at the same time I have a Muk named "Flood" in my party. Giving out nicknames just helps me get motivated playing as they give the mons a "life" in a way, making me feel attached to them smh.
 
I only nickname in nuzlockes and I usually use a theme (colors, food, animals etc.). I'm not good at thinking them up. It helps you get attached to your Pokemon but I still love them without a name.
 

Hulavuta

keeps the varmints on the run
is a Site Content Manager Alumnusis a Community Leader Alumnusis a Community Contributor Alumnusis a Contributor Alumnus
I used to rarely nickname, but when I got SoulSilver in 2012, sort of midway into my run, I decided to name all my Pokemon and from that point on I became a nicknamer. Usually I name my Pokemon after characters from various video games or anime so a lot of my Pokemon end up with human names (not too unlike real life pets). As I mentioned in this post, I like nicknames as a form of self-expression.

As for trading with people who don't give nicknames, my main problem with this is that it just sticks out really badly...like you have five Pokemon with names and then the last Pokemon is just the Pokemon name. It sticks out like sore thumb. Generally, what I will try to do with these Pokemon is re-breed them so I can name them. Usually the Pokemon given to me is a 5/6IV and I have a 6IV Ditto so it shouldn't take too long.

I always name my Pokemon. It adds a further level of attachment to them, and I know someone's going to say "lol you get attached to pixels", but I don't think anyone sees Pokemon as just a number.
I agree, I don't think anyone thinks this except for people who are severely lacking in empathy and imagination. Someone being "real" or "fake" really has very little bearing on how much we can relate to or care for him or her. (Just think of all of your favorite characters from any media)
 

Karxrida

Death to the Undying Savage
is a Community Contributor Alumnus
I also like to nickname my mons something clever or as a shoutout, but never something to obvious. For example, I named my Bisharp Devlin, my Scizor Edward (which was female with Technician for a 2-for-1 shoutout), and my Ferrothorn Bueller. I honestly REALLY hate nicknames like the ones in the Special manga; they're unoriginal and just shortened versions of the thing's name (Saur the Venusaur, anyone?).
 
I've always nicknamed my Pokemon, and while I can use Pokemon without nicknames I far prefer using ones that have that personalized touch to them. It makes them feel like they're a little bit different from all the other ones you run into in a game. It makes them feel individual. If I'm going to play a Pokemon game I want to make something of a story of it, even if it's in my own head. It just adds that little something extra to the experience. I also nickname every Pokemon I catch (unless I mash B too fast and accidentally skip it). Coming up with nicknames is part of the fun for me.

My nicknames have been all over the place over the years. I do think I've come a long way from naming everything <element>-man like I did when I was a kid though :P. My names these days tend to be pretty random (I named my Fletchling "BleepBloop" for literally no reason for example). Some of them relate to what type of Pokemon they are, some of them would pass as actual human names, some are references and some are completely random bullshit that happened to be running through my head at the time of capture. It makes going through my PC boxes... interesting. It's always funny to go back and think "what the hell was going through my head when I named THIS?".
 

Age of Kings

of the Ash Legion
is a Forum Moderator Alumnus
I do so whenever possible, but I trade/download stuff off Pokecheck a lot so they're getting rarer. It pains me when they aren't nicknamed something I personally picked out. But all of my personal competitive Pokemon get names. I always think about them and try to think of something non-obvious....going back to the names for my DPPt mons, I have no idea what the fuck I was doing. And it is glorious.
 
As for me, I'm one of the "must nickname no matter what" variety. Sometimes I scour around for days because I just can't bear having one of my buddies still un-named, looking through pop culture, foreign languages, their planned role on their team, et cetera... The only exception is my Rapidash, who's based on one I used to roleplay - a wild one who was proud of her wild-ness.

Back in earlier gens, though, I gave my pokémon really... bizarre names. ("Phoenixpen" the Cyndaquil and "Fuzzcactus" the Ponyta, anyone? -_-) And then there was a phase where I just stopped giving a fuck for a while and named everyone after capital cities. And...
*Checks G1*
Oh fuck, Yellow version... "Circute" the Pikachu, "Chararrar" the Charizard, and... *gulp* ..."Sploosh" the Blastoise.
I am shame.
 
I abhor inconsistency, so in a single run-through of a game I will stick to either nicknames or species names. And I can't stand stock nicknames. If I hear of another Steelix whose nickname refers to Metal Gear Solid I will scream.
 
This and that - I pretty much force myself to come up with names with great success but my sister can't, even though she likes nicknames. Pretty much every Pokemon we have put work into deserves a name.

As for the names themselves seem to be non-standard. Most of them are puns, sometimes incredibly obvious ones like Coqneur for Blaziken, Kuchinite for Mawile or Sanguine for shiny Aegislash.
Come to think of - I think I haven't defined my language of choice yet.
 

Kadew

*bird sounds*
is an Artist Alumnus
When I first began playing the pokemon games, I very rarely gave my pokemon nicknames. Pokemon were pokemon, and I was more giddy about the fact that I was actually owning a game going about catching them all, and so I just left them with species names. My best friend in elementary school, however, was just the opposite. She nicknamed every pokemon except legendaries (because those are unique? I guess), even naming her starter swampert after me.

She must have rubbed off on me, because some time around the fourth generation, I pulled a 180. Everything I caught was nicknamed. EVERYTHING. And since I am always compelled to capture every single available species, each one of those eternally-boxed trash'mons has a name. If there's a typo in the name as I type it, I leave it in for laughs. By the end of the run the names are no longer scraping the bottom of the barrel, but have broken through the floor and are digging into the ground.

Post-game nowadays, every 'mon on my team I try to come up with a good name for, since others will be seeing it, but after going through the story and having caught them all and given them dumb monikers like "adiowx" and "Potato", I cool down on nicknaming anything but deliberately bred for team members. Especially when breeding. You'd have to be some special kind of mad to try giving a name to every child in the boxes of imperfect hatchlings.
 
I never used to be a nicknamer, and I never cared about "cuteness" or the individual mon, but XY gave me a weird new perspective. The addition of the 3D models (which I thought I would hate) and Pokemon-amie have made me actually care about my team a little bit. It's weird that something like that came with age, but I mean whatever. It makes playing a lot more fun IMO. Besides, its much more fun to see "Go get em, Beth!" rather than "Go get em, Granbull" or whatever.
 
I always name my Pokemon. It adds a further level of attachment to them, and I know someone's going to say "lol you get attached to pixels", but I don't think anyone sees Pokemon as just a number.
Same here. It adds a little something more to the game imo. Don't mind getting Pokémon without names either. But the nicknames are kind of fun to come up with.
 
To me the mons have to have nicknames. In a game like pokemon, aside from being shiny, nickname is probably the only thing that makes them standout from one another. Otherwise you might as well be playing the TCGs. The whole thing about training up a team and competing is that each mon is different to you than anyone else's. Before Nintendo invent some new features like make up and dresses for our favourite pokemons, nickname is probably the only thing that makes me feel my Garchomp is different to many thousands other Charchomps out there in the competitive circle.
 
Every Pokémon I'm going to use, I ALWAYS nickname no matter what. Nicknaming is fun and cute and I have a bad habit where I don't even like acceptin' breedin' rejects as trade offers since I generally have a policy where I give away breeding projects for free anyway.

I'm not the best WITH names but just having names just makes my murderbeasts all the more endearing! I LIKE ENDEARING THINGS.
 

DHR-107

Robot from the Future
is a Member of Senior Staffis a Community Contributoris a Smogon Discord Contributoris a Pokemon Researcheris a Smogon Media Contributor
Orange Islands
I only nickname if I am forced too by the parameters of the game I am playing (IE Nuzlockes). I am very much like Ash in that regard.

Species name is very descriptive for me anyway, and for reasons unbeknownst to me I never get THAT attached to any particular Pokemon, I more get attached to that Species? If a Pokemon performs exceptionally that species becomes good in my eyes.

Even then when I am forced to name stuff the names are generally really terrible, even with help from others. Koaly the Torkoal, Perty the Swampert, Zoom the Swellow etc etc... Really horrible.
 
Hooray I finally found another person on this thread that doesn't do nicknames! I don't do Nuzlockes, so pretty much 99.9999999999999999999999% of my pokes are unnamed. And calling a poke by its species name is perfectly fine with me, as I know the difference between all my pokes (different moves/nature/item/etc, so I'm never confused).

So yeah! Go Team no nickname! Or Team Ash Ketchum if you wanna think of it that way. :)
 
Only in the sense that we don't nickname our pokes. Definitely nowhere near similar in battling (I'd never use LC-legal pokes against the E4 or sending them up against a Darkrai, for starters) :p Still, Ash is cool for being such an iconic character... (But this is getting way way way off topic...)

EDIT: Not to mention Ash gets a lot of cool female companions! Iris never existed in my universe...
 
I only use nicknames for Pokemon that are not Legendary. Legendaries are supposed to be one of a kind so nicknaming them defeats that purpose for me.
 
I cool down on nicknaming anything but deliberately bred for team members. Especially when breeding. You'd have to be some special kind of mad to try giving a name to every child in the boxes of imperfect hatchlings.
I actually tried that once when breeding Nidorans. I ran out of names after about the fiftieth :p

I only use nicknames for Pokemon that are not Legendary. Legendaries are supposed to be one of a kind so nicknaming them defeats that purpose for me.
Yeah, I see your point there, and that's how I go sometimes, too... sometimes. Ones that there are more than one of in lore (Lati@s, Mew, Lugia) or ones that are extra-special to me (Mewtwo, ReshiWkyurem) I name, but most, nnnope.

To me the mons have to have nicknames. In a game like pokemon, aside from being shiny, nickname is probably the only thing that makes them standout from one another. Otherwise you might as well be playing the TCGs. The whole thing about training up a team and competing is that each mon is different to you than anyone else's. Before Nintendo invent some new features like make up and dresses for our favourite pokemons, nickname is probably the only thing that makes me feel my Garchomp is different to many thousands other Charchomps out there in the competitive circle.
Garchomp in a dress and makeup would be hilarious.
Yeah, most of the time, Showdown and Battle Spot just feels like playing against the computer because everyone has the exact same individuals and all that...
 
I have thought about this some more, and I feel nicknames are somewhat different for me by comparison with most people on this thread. A lot of people here seem to use nicknames to increase the connection they have with their Pokemon, much like why people in the real world name their pets. For me it's a chance to show off my originality, to come up with really original nicknames. I try to avoid giving the same Pokemon the same nickname twice (but, yeah, if I'd ever tried breeding and getting fifty boxes full of the same Pokemon, maybe that would change...)
 
Reminds me of my old Nicknamsanity thread. If I was to choose I would probably say that nicknames are a must on pokemon that you can think of a clever name for. I'm not a fan of generic nicknames but when a nickname works then it should be nicknamed
 
I was just thinking of nicknames for Pokemon that I personally breed for battle or use for an in-game team. The only exception to these rules are legendaries...which I leave unnicknamed because I think it ruins the "flavor" of legendaries.

However, sometimes it takes a few months for me to finally think of a good nickname for anyone. Sometimes they end up on a theme team so the nickname is easy but a lot of time, nope.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Users Who Are Viewing This Thread (Users: 1, Guests: 0)

Top