I'll confess that my nicknaming tendencies tend towards the esoteric. Actually, forget just tending towards. Originally Tarot cards, then the ethnarchs of the angelic choirs (Metatron, Iophiel, Tzaphqiel, Tzadqiel, Kamael, Raphael, Haniel, Michael, Gabriel), then the angels of the Shem ha-Mephorasch (the alleged hidden name of God you get by aligning three adjacent verses somewhere in the Pentateuch that are 72 characters apiece), now the angels of the hours described in the Ars Paulina. Don't ask how I allocated which names to which pokemon; it's a complicated process. Right now, I'm trying to figure out how to extend a team involving Sabrathan (a Tentacruel) and Beratiel (a Chesnaught). But it's generally only critters I plan to use in PvP teams (which I've never gotten around to doing...{grumble}) that get nicknamed.