Talking Point: Do You Name Your Pokémon?

Absolutely not. The Pokémon all have species names for a reason.

Also, if you nickname something based on what it looks like when you catch it, it sometimes evolves into something with a nickname that doesn’t quite work anymore.

The only time I will ever break tradition is occasionally when it comes to Mr. Mime. If I happen to catch a female, I will occasionally name it Ms. or Mrs. Mime.

My habit, I nickname Caterpie Fluttershy because reasons.

That's usually it when I nickname Pokemon, I usually keep their names because I like them.

I come from the golden age where the internet doesn't give you ever detail about every pokemon before the games release. This is why I needed to keep their original names so I could remember what they were called.

Nah i never nickname them and never will.

I don't normally name my Pokemon. It's because I can't think of nicknames for all of them and they sort of have names already.

I think it can be fun to name them though. I have named some in pass games, but not many.

The only time I don't nickname Pokemon is my first playthrough of a new generation. Nuzlockes get nicknames, of course, but also any Pokemon I raise for competitive battling after my initial playthrough.

In the older, pre-gen V games, I'll usually nickname Pokémon, bar legendaries, that are in my team. Really, I only do it because I don't like how the name's in caps lock in those games.
Will I nickname my Pokémon in Violet? Probably not. It's just too much effort and doesn't look right in a modern game to see "Go! Typhoon!"

Not really. Mainly because I'm not really good at naming things.

It's hard enough to think of a name for my player character, so no.

Maybe one (long time ago) only charmander lol even forgot how i called him.

I chose "Maybe one or two, but not really," but in the context of "Maybe one or two in the past, but not really anymore."

Pretty much always name my starters, and then might name some mons that I definitely intend to have in my team. However, I remember the first time I did it I was nonplussed when the cute name I chose at the start became really incongruous with a beefy final evolution.

I never nickname mine and never will. When I finish the game, I always move onto another game but I always come back. And when I do, I forget a lot of things including names or where I stored them. So giving them nicknames means I would have a harder time finding what I'm looking. Leaving it be also helps to remember their real names

@Kirbyo To make things bold, put asterisks (*) around what you want bold.
Like this!

@BenAV
Yep, this right here. Sometimes I'll do themed names for a Nuzlocke like rpg classes (Charmander named Paladin, Pikachu named Rogue, Geodude named Barbarian) but that's as far as that creativity goes.

All my Gible.

Kibble, Scribble, Wibble, Dibble, Flibble, you get the idea.

I tend to reserve nicknames for shiny Pokémon because I go through the extra effort to get them, or they feel more special to me. Though I am considering doing some more nicknames this time around for Scarlet and Violet.

Ever since I rediscovered my love for the series with Gen 4, I've named every single 'mon. It's cheesy, but it makes them feel less like a means to an end during combat for me.

The Shinies only !

Pretty much the same as Kate (so I slightly lied and picked the EVERYTHING ALWAYS FOREVER option for the poll). The idea of not naming them — at least your party members — feels a bit strange. Most Pokémon end up evolving into other forms, so giving them a name is a nice reminder of where you both started and how far you’ve come.

Pokémon is largely a game about smashing things. You parade around the world pulverising thousands of wild creatures and extracting prize money from Youngsters and Hikers by pummeling their partners into the ground. It feels good to wander around beating stuff up and getting money for it. This is Pokémon’s core gameplay loop. But ultimately it’s a gameplay loop built around wanton destruction.

Christening the creatures you enslave is one of the few slivers of creativity that the game offers amongst all the smashing. It makes Pokémon feel like more than brightly coloured weapons, and it’s a feature I feel the series would lose a large part of its appeal without.

Since Gen 1. I usually go with a theme for names each game, just to keep it consistent and easily identify which game the Pokémon came from.

The last theme was food.

I never did it as a kid, but I tried it for the last couple generations. Problem is now I can barely remember any of the new species names.

Who can forget Terry the Tangela!!!!

Yes, but not legendaries or rare catches

I unofficially nicknamed my Sapphire Chaizard 'Char-Char McGragh'.

I never typed that in to the Game but would refer to him as that verbally.

Yeah I'm with Jim and Gavin on this one; sounds like a recipe for too much confusion/disaster. I have trouble picking a name for own character in games, so what hope have I got picking a monicker for 900+ little critters?

I name a few. Mostly the starter and a couple others. If I were more creative, I'd name more of them.

Depends if I can come up with something that'll make me giggle everytime I say it out loud

I normally don’t but if I’m doing a Nuzlocke then I will. Usually call them really boring names like Keith and Brian though.

I have started nicknaming all of my Pokemon that I am using on my teams (both story and competitive) since Gen 4 and I will keep doing it. It adds a bit of personality to the Pokemon

Been playing the series since 1998, and have literally never named one of my pokemon. Never will either.

Yep, it's the only way to experience them in my native language (Catalan) besides rom-hacks

I like giving my Pokémon nicknames cause I find it fun. I’ll prob giving nicknames to quite a bit of the new Pokémon when Scarlet/Violet come out.

It'd be weird if I got a dog in real life and simply named it "dog" or its breed name like "Golden retriever" or "Pomeranian". Of course most people nickname their pets, Therefore I nickname all the Pokemon I on my team in game. Exclusions apply to legendaries, or pokemon that are one of a kind... but if i put them on my team and get attached all bets are off.

I sure do. Almost all of them.

Sometimes I do, I may take the Pokemons name from another language and use that as their nickname if there's something special about that individual (like my shiny Charizard, named Glurak, which my phone just tried to change to "Gloria")

Only the pokemon i intend to train and use long-term get renamed, naming every caterpie or pikachu i catch along the way would be ridiculous.

Yes, absolutely! I’m shocked to see almost everybody here say no.

After all, Pokémon are pets and friends. They have species name for, the species. Do you call your cat cat? Or all your friends human?

And it’s just so much more interesting and fun. I get attached to nicknamed Pokémon way more, I would remember my popplio named Aurora more than just ‘ popplio ‘. Why keep the normal name? That’s just boring to me and makes it the same Pokémon as every other in my opinion.

There are cool nicknames and funny ones. Exploring old save files and looking at all your old nicknames is so fun. I honestly wouldn’t find Pokémon fun if I couldn’t nickname.

There’s my opinion.

I named my Mamoswine Readycrisp like the bacon.

The only time I name them is if I am going to trade with a friend and can think of something witty to call them.

Nope, the anime never had nicknames if I recall. And Pokemon would cry out syllables of their species names too. And in the games, I don't believe they ever had different names unless you got one from those npc trades I think?. Not even in spin offs like the mystery dungeon games so I just took to calling them their species name like everything else

I've never been good at nicknames anyway so I'm good lol

I always give my team Pokémon nicknames. I don't give nicknames to 'mons that I don't use in my team. In the early games when it used to capitalise names, I always gave them nicknames in the correct case. Putting names all in caps just looked wrong to me. Now its just a habit of mine to nickname my team.

The Pokemon names are great in my country, like Seemops for example. And I like to keep things the original way. I never change names in RPGs and I started to look up the canon names of the Pokemon trainers.

Absolutely! Gives them more character! I didn't use too but around sun and moon onwards I've done it for every game.
My favourites would include Joel the Parasect (of which I've had three, four if he's in Violet), HealthySnack the Appleton! Zegreda the Eevee, PIKA PIKA the Mymikyu (or however you spell it's real name), Crabmeat and Birdmeat (Kingler and Pigeon), Elvis the NidoKing and Harry the Alacazam.

Lots of people here seem to have dogs named "Dog". /jk

I think the most impressive thing about this article is that I also named my dragapult noodle

@Dom_31 which gives birth to the legendary pokemon bill nye

@Coffeemonster Those are great

I've never given my Pokemon nicknames.

This is a great article staff peeps. Thanks for putting a smile on my face.

Ever since the original, I name the first Geodude I catch TheROCK. All others keep their names.

Played since red and blue and only for stadiums alternative colours really

Named a few favs back in my red/blue days. Figure if they perform well, then they've earned a name.

Meanwhile, there was a guy I once traded with back then that would name Pokemon he was trading their name. So that Meowth or Vulpix I got from him were still called as such after evolving into Persian & Ninetails.

As a kid, blasting my way through the original Pokemon Red, I didn't feel the need to nickname them. Same mentality I guess as the anime with the names just staying the same. Of course, it irked me for the special NPC trade Pokemon like Farfetch'd who was stuck with the lamentable "DUX". Although in retrospect, upon explaining the game's Mr. Mime with the nickname "MARCEL" to my dad at a young age, I learned it was coined after the famous French actor and mime, Marcel Marceau. Cheers to the localization team for sneaking that little factoid in.

I name the ones I intend on using and don't bother with Dex fodder. Unless it's something puerile like naming Bellsprout, Diglett, and Caterpie after hilarious body parts.

But I think I'll forgo names entirely for SV, naming is a habit I'd prefer to move away from.

I’ve never named my Pokémon. Early in it was just too hard to tell who was who in the PC, plus the cartoon called them by their species name. Then in battles it was frustrating to have “Dave is about to sent out Chubbles! Do you want to switch Pokémon?” And have no idea if switching was a good thing or not. Would be much fairer if they just said the species name there.

But mostly I hate receiving randomly named ones in trades and not being able to rename them. If possible I will always breed them to get an unnamed one and just release the trade. I don’t play competitively so I might have released some near perfect IV trades someone was throwing into the ether as an act of kindness, just because they decided to call them ‘Bubbles’ or something.

I thought the whole point of video games is to use crude and unusual names for things. Pokemon is just giving you free real estate, in that regard.

I’m really bad at giving nicknames but I give all of mine names anyway. Usually give them generic names so it’s ironically funny in a bland and vanilla sort of comedy. Instead of waiting for a name to come to mind I start making sounds until I refine them to a name. Some are quick like naming my wigglytuff “Boof” others are complex like naming my Aerodactyl Brekolekis. They aren’t names outright but when attached to a Pokémon they start as just horrid sounds then become names after I play for a while and get my first “Dawinga came in clutch!” moment.

I haven't played a Pokemon game in a while, and I'm clearly in the minority here, but I loved giving my Pokemon nicknames. Made me feel more attached to them.
I never named legendaries though. I think I thought it was disrespectful or something?

Around gen 6(?) I started giving them nicknames that are mostly actual human names, which never stopped being funny for me. The powerhouses on my Shield team were an Appletun named Susan and a Sandaconda named Sylvain. (My starter, Inteleon, was Kyle.)

Of course, that had a majorly detrimental effect in that gen, because I didn’t remember the actual names of the Pokémon I was raising. A bit split about whether I’ll do so for Violet.

One time I played Crystal and gave all the characters names based on Animal Crossing villagers (Politoed = Raddle, Xatu = Jitters, Donphan = Cyd, etc.) and that was fun.

I don't name them unless I can come up with something like Stupiduck for Psyduck, Scharbucks for Arbok, Not-Kirby for Jigglypuff or Gelatina for Giratina.

I remember I also initially referred to Makuhita as Majin Buu

Only in recent years I've gotten around to naming them...but usually with garbage names like Charry for Charmander or Orange Joe for my shiny Gyarados

Without checking, I'd say naming my Leafeon "Moss Boss" and my Snorlax "Food Coma" in PL: Arceus represents the apex of my Pokémon-naming creativity.

sometimes I do name them, other times I don't. just depends if I feel a connection to the Pokemon I guess

I named them all in Shield and Shining Pearl, but I did not name them in Let's Go Eevee or Legends Arceus.

Let's Go and Legends Arceus have a larger focus on catching everything that comes your way, while the mainline games feel like your team is more personal to you.

Ever since Pokemon Yellow I've consistently named two Pokemon, Pikachu (Puka, the name of the surfing Pikachu from the Anime lol) and Snorlax (Papi, cause it reminds of my dad)

I have a weird ritual of naming the first Weedle I catch in any Pokémon game TRON

@RappinRootbeer haha that's hilarious, I love it.

On a casual play through I never give my pokemon names. When I do a nuzlocke then yes.

I've named them after Grecoroman Gods lastly.
Mewtwo is Pluto (Hades), Zapdos is Jupiter and my shiny Dragoran i brought from W2 to Alola and now to Diamond is Yoshi

@thesilverbrick they have species names? That's like buying a labrador and just calling it labrador. Pokemon are basically pets.

I give mine, people names. Might have a pikachu called Barry or a ponyta called Dave. I remember having a Growlith called Keith.

@dkxcalibur I remember Terry. Screw Kevin Punt.

I actually transcribed that entire song to make a karaoke version. It took hours.

No nickname gang. I like their official names and keeping them in place makes it easier to remember them.

I’ll gladly go up against someone else’s “Weed Cat” or “Chonkmaster.”

@NinjaNicky — I think that may be an entirely different debate. Are Pokémon pets?

Nintendo Life… I think we need another poll here. 🙈

What complicates this slightly is Pokémon say their names.

@fromjtov but do they say their names or were they named after the noise they make 🤔 perhaps its like most farmers that don't name their animals because it means you're attached. If they're purely caught for fighting then they remain nameless but if you had one purely as a pet, you'd name it.

@Luigi05 Thanks!

Where's the NintendoLife review?? Coming tomorrow?

I've had the tradition of naming my starter after an old Jedi name I acquired as a kid from some kid magazine, ever since Gen3

Yeah, I name them, every single one I catch. I've done it since gen 5.

Every single one. Everything from "Sparkplug" to "Gumball" I come up with fun names for all my Pokemon.

I make it a challenge for myself to try to come up with good/funny names for every Pokémon I catch.

If I'm going to send it for a wonder trade then it gets named HONKERS. Otherwise no.

Always the starter. Other than that, no. Helps me learn the names.

I name them after ex girlfriends.

I name my team, none of the others. I always have a Batman (Crobat) in my team, or Flame Boy (the fire starter), sometimes a Fatman (Snorlax)... my names arent great, but I like them.

No I don't because then I won't remember the official names.

I named some of my Pokemons with very obvious Indonesian words.

Blastoise = Kura Air
Sawk = Karate
Venusaur = Bungasaurus (Bunga = Flower)
Gengar = Hantu
Tropius = Pisang
Greninja = Katak Ninja
Vileplume = Bunga Bau
Pachirisu = Tupai Petir

Some of them I named with cool Summon name.

Gyarados = Leviathan
Moltres = Phoenix

No. I've always hated nicknames, especially when someone gives a stupid nickname to a Pokémon you traded for, and it's stuck with that stupid name!

Theme naming is always fun! I've recently started not nicknaming every Pokémon I catch - mostly because I'm not sure if I'll use it or not - but if I do use it, I'm nicknaming it.

Nickname pokemon can be fun. Not very creative but I call Sandshrew Koopa and Squirtle Haru. Simple but I like em. : P

I went through my box in sword and shield with my sister… we were in stitches at some of the ridiculous nicknames

Absolutely! It makes the bond that bit more personal and in reality everyone would name their Pokémon like they do their pets. You wouldn’t call your pet Alsatian ‘Alsatian’ would you?

I normally name all my Pokémon that I’m going to use on my team after the bosses in Zelda and a few other video games. Eg my Gyrados is Gyorg and my Metagross is Quadraxis.

The exception is I did a run with all the prehistoric Pokémon and named them after the Dinobots.

I won't name my Pikachu Sparky. Its confusing anyway they say as they are

some pokemon of mine i give nickname to them, is like giving a name to your dog/cat, it make your feel more conected to this pokemon.

@Uncle_Franklin LOL

I did! My Treeko in Sapphire was named Chico, an Aron named Mido, an Electrike named Sparky, and a Chinchow named Patrick to name a few... In Platinum, my Piplup was named Ramón, I had a Hoothoot named Coo, a Goldeen named Kine, a Beautifly named Laura, a Buneary named Joliene, who had a daughter, Regeena, and a Starly named Tokari, among others. When I get Brilliant Diamond, if I get it, I intend to catch and name (most) all the same Pokemon...

I only name my Pokemon after famous rappers.

I never really gave my Pokémon nicknames. I'd get ones with nicknames from trades (and that was with NPCs, not real people), but I never named any myself.

However, I did want to nickname Keldeo when it became available in Pokémon Black, but the game didn't allow me the option to. I wanted to name it Rarity, since (like the character from My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, which I am a fan of) it was a unicorn, and it was a rare Legendary Pokémon.

I never rename them, but when I played Pokémon Gold, I used to only catch male Pokémons Not sure why tho!

hell no, they stay the way they are

I remember in Sw&SH I named my two best Pokémon “Pride” and “Joy” but other than not, no not really

I hated when a traded pokemon had a nickname that I couldn’t change 😩

I like to give names to the Pokémon I really like, but most the time I leave them as they are.

My starter is always named 'Chosen One'.

@RadioHedgeFund You wouldn’t call your pet Alsatian ‘Alsatian’ would you?

Yeah, I bought a hand fed Parakeet a few months ago and since I couldn't think of a name, I just call him 'Bird'. He doesn't seem to mind.

Lovingly naming the pets you are going to send out to fight until they faint is kinda cold.

Only if it's a Pokèmon I don't plan on ever trading away. I hate getting Pokèmon with nicknames I can't change. So I don't want to do that to others. Even then, I only nickname on rare occasions, if I'm inspired. I also keep them to nicknames that have some form of their actual name in it. So for instance, I nicknamed my Chimchar in Brilliant Diamond Chimnychunga. It

I’ve never played an actual Pokémon game. But now that I know I can rename them, I think I’m going to!

@Toshiro_Baloney Name them Dog Fighter 1, Dog Fighter 2 and so on because that's what they are.

i renamed all of ian wilson's pokemon to rude words on the year 9 french trip when he let me borrow his gameboy. i still feel guilty about it now, one of the few occasions from my childhood where i was actively mean to another child. if you're reading this ian, i'm sorry.

Never have, never will.

I never used to and I think Jim does an excellent job of explaining why that is. He's especially right about trading for a Pokemon that has a nickname. I just can't do it either.

That having been said, I've recently started training an actual team for Emerald's Battle Frontier for the very first time and I've been giving them nicknames because it feels right. I've got to say I actually like giving them names, it makes them feel more special. Still getting used to the idea but I like it more than I thought I would.

I ALWAYS do it, cause it gives them à personality, and makes them mine!

@ZZalapski Food Coma. Lol