The Question of the Day is a way to facilitate community discussion to help members ponder the unanswered questions of the world that are somehow relating to the hobby. Questions are many times open ended and up to interpretation. Feel free to post your thoughts in as much or as little detail as you’d like.
Helpful Considerations may or may not help some people focus their answer, these are blurred to not bother those who have their own ideas.
Most of the original Japanese 151 names are lazy, some highlights include:
Thunders | Jolteon
Thunder | Zapdos
Fire | Moltres
Freezer | Articuno
Lizard | Charmeleon
Ghost | Gastley
Ghost | Haunter
Pigeon | Pidgeotto
Sand | Sandshrew
Smelly flower | Gloom
Small duck | Psyduck
Gallop | Rapidash
Sleep | Drowzee
Sleeper | Hypno
Crab | Krabby
Lucky | Chansey
Mini dragon | Dratini
Comparing Pokemon names to their English counterparts fills me with gratitude to the localization team for spoiling us with creative and original English names. Pokemon would not be what it is today if they directly translated the names as is.
Snake, backwards.
Kobra, backwards.
Nine tails.
Meow but with a th.
A duck with psychic powers.
Growl but with ithe.
Canine but with Ar.
Abra, Kadabra, Alakazam…
Tentacle, but add cool and cruel.
A masculine geod, a geodude.
Pony, but with a ta.
Seel.
A grimy Pokemon… grimer.
A Pokemon that haunts people. Haunter.
Drowsy but spelled different.
A Pokemon that hypnotizes people.
A crab Pokemon, but spelled cool.
An electric orb. Volt orb.
A Pokemon that licks with a big tongue.
Coughing, but spelled cool.
Wheezing, but spelled cool.
Tangled, but spelled cool.
A seahorse, but said differently.
Magma, but with an r.
A magic carp.
A Pokemon made of polygons, but spelled with an r.
A snoring and relaxed Pokemon.
A cat sound (Mew).
The second version of Mew.
Most of the English 151 names fall into one of the five groups below:
Anagrams
Ekans
Arbok
Horsea
Portmanteaus
Char + lizard = Charizard
Arcane + Canine = Arcanine
Squirrel + Turtle = Squirtle
Sand + Shrew = Sandshrew
Etymological Root Soup
Jolteon
Zapdos
Aerodactyl
Direct translations
Pikachu
Arbok
Gyarados
Mew
Mewtwo
Special wrongness
Koffing
Weezing
Seel
Dragonite
I agree, special wrongness feels like the laziest category. However names that use special wrongness stay true to the spirit of the original Japanese names, many of which used katakana loan words to create a sense of unique, special wrongness.
To be fair I think that’s looking at it with a slightly anglo-centric perspective… from the perspective of a typical Japanese elementary schoolchild many of those names are plentifully unique and creative. Japanese also doesn’t have as rich a phonemic inventory as English to play around with.
Having said that… Krab and Seel are literally just the English word for what it is which does feel a bit lazy
You know the English words. A Japanese elementary school child wouldn’t (mostly), so they wouldn’t think ‘ahh that’s a lazy name it’s just the English word for X!’
Not to mention, English has a certain cool factor when speaking Japanese! It’s similar to how we throw around a Latin, Spanish, or French word here or there when speaking English. When translating, you have to add the “cool” factor in manually, which is what names like “Thunder” and “Fire” are- Zapdos and Moltres have had that cool factor added back in by using Spanish in the English translation.
Look im all for the pokemon that are just more than one, but you cant tell me you literally couldnt think of a better name than doduo, dodrio, and dugtrio. I can SEE that there is 3 diglett. No need to tell me through the name.
I see what you mean, you’re right
Setting aside our knowledge as English speakers, and imagining the names as a native speaker would, they still feel lazy and potentially confusing.
From a Japanese point of view, words like ファイアー (fire, Moltres) and サンダー (thunder, Zapdos) are well known English loan words used mainly in product or event names.
I really like lickitung as a clever name but it’s all downhill after that since lickilicky is just peak lazy to me, it was my first thought after hearing the name and it hasn’t changed ever since
