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The Source Behind the Names

Linkachu

Linkachu

Hero of Pizza
Staff member
Administrator
If you're like me, some of the Pokemon names mean nothing to you. Where the heck did they come up with names like Sentret and Milotic?

Anyways, if you know the meanings behind any of the Pokemon names or Pokemon characters (no matter how obvious they are) post 'em here. I think it'd be cool to have all the different Pokemon listed at some point :)

And on that note, I gotta run.

EDIT: Many of the names have already been explained through Pokeschool's POON and the Turquoise Tavern, so check them out before posting anything. They didn't list non-Pokemon characters (people, towns, etc.) or names from other languages, so if you can translate those (the French, Japanese, etc.) please do.

http://www.turquoisecity.com/upokedex/entryhtml/names/gyarados.htm
-> Replace the name Gyarados with any of the Pokemon to get its description

http://www.pokeschool.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=105534
- The POON
 
Linkachu

Linkachu

Hero of Pizza
Staff member
Administrator
...

This is why I call myself stupid ;p

Anyways, post more! And if anyone knows 'em post the meanings behind the Japanes names, too :)

I'll post a few obvious ones:

Bulbasaur - "Bulb" + "Dinosaur"
Ivysaur - "Ivy" + "Dinosaur"
Venusaur - "Venus flytrap" I assume, unless Venus (god/planet) relates to plants somehow + "Dinosaur"

Squirtle - "Squirt" + "Turtle"
Wartortle - Not sure why they stuck War in there, maybe because it sounds cool? + "Turtle"/"Tortoise"
Blastoise - "Blast" for its cannons + "Tortoise"

Charmander - "Charcoal" + "Salamander"
Charmeleon - "Charcoal" + "Chameleon"
Charizard - "Charcoal" + "Lizard" (Go Lizardon! XD)

Whee! Back to my annoying paper x.x
 
Doctor Oak

Doctor Oak

Staff member
Overlord
Porygon is a play on Polygon - which it is clearly made up of.

We do actually have access to the POON, Pokemon Origin Of Names thing that was devised on Pokeschool for use in the Encyclopedia, but obviously it never made it to it before i lost the time to work on it. ^^ It covered pretty much all of them.
 
Linkachu

Linkachu

Hero of Pizza
Staff member
Administrator
Hmm... Yeah, you're right. They basically have listed them all. Some of the people seem to be having trouble agreeing on names, tho ;)

It doesn't list the Japanese names, though, unless the names stayed consistant between translations. Looking up those would be worth posting in my opinion. If anyone can translate, go to it! ^^
 
M

Meangreen

Yeah, we purpously ignored the japanese names. Kerath (the guy who started it) was himself compiling a japanese list but then he vanished.

Alot of the english names are just modified japanese ones like Groudon, Kyogre, Rhydon etc. And some they never botherd to translate, like Pikachu, Raichu and Raikou.
 
baratron

baratron

Moderator of Elder Scrolls
Staff member
Moderator
GameFAQs has a Pokemon Name FAQ as of a few months ago. It's pretty comprehensive and quite amusing. Although I don't agree with all his explanations.

I always thought most of the names were quite obvious, but then I did French, Latin and (ancient) Greek at school. I don't really remember much Latin or Greek apart from scientific terms, but that's enough for these purposes - as most of the Latinate bits in Pokemon naming is from the standard binomial naming system for animals, or from astronomy terminology. Yes, I am sad.

Some more explanations for anyone who is bored:

Lunatone - luna is Latin for "Moon", -tone as in stone. One of those names that tells you exactly what the Pokemon looks like :).

Solrock - sol is Latin for "Sun", -rock as in... rock. Duh.

Aerodactyl - "aero" is Greek for air, "dactyl" is Greek for finger. Pterodactyl is the name of a flying ancient reptile which Aerodactyl resembles. A polydactylous person is someone with more than 5 fingers on each hand (and at least one of the English GCSE exam boards makes you study the genetics of polydactyly...).

Anorith - I think this name is from anno, Latin for "year" or "age" + lithos, Greek for stone (with the "lith" part suffering from the common Japanese l/r confusion). So a rock Pokemon that has been extinct for years.

Regi is from the Latin word rex meaning king. "regi" is the dative case, which means "to" or "for" the king (as in "Give this paper to the king") and "regis" is the genitive case, which means "of" or "belonging to" (as in "This is the king's paper). (There is a horrible seaside town in southern England called Bognor Regis, because some king decided he liked it enough to award them that title.) So, depending on the linguistic knowledge of the translators, we have 3 Pokemon called either Rock King, Steel King and Ice King - OR the King's Rock, the King's Ice and the King's Steel. I would highly doubt that the regi part of the name means "the King's" EXCEPT there's already an item called King's Rock...

Vulpix - fairly simple Latin again. In biology, the fox family are named vulpis (in the same way that dogs are canis and cats are felis). So it's vulp- meaning fox and -ix meaning six - Vulpix has six tails.

Wailmer - yes, "mer" is as in mermaid and merman - the French word for sea. So "sea whale", as if there's any other kind.

Gardevoir - again a French name - "regarder" and "voir" are two words meaning "to see". So Gardevoir sees twice - with its eyes and with its psychic powers ("second sight"). Also there is the garde/guard pun, implying that Gardevoir protects itself with its psychic "far-seeing" powers. And I keep having hysterics every time I read this word because I keep thinking of garderobe, which was the place in a castle where they would hang clothes to protect them from moths. It was the wardrobe and privy combined. This is how the clothes got protected from moths - they didn't like the smell. (If you don't believe me, read Lords & Ladies by Terry Pratchett - it goes into a lot of detail about garderobes).

Illumise - illuminate + miss, as in the female appellation - Illumises are always female.

...

I need to stop eating these chocolate chip cookies. Anyone want one? :p
 
StellarWind Elsydeon

StellarWind Elsydeon

Armblades Ascendant
Staff member
Administrator
Actually, Anorith derives from 'Anomalocaris', an early invertebrate which is clearly what Anorith is based on.

Absol's name has an interesting origin - It derives from 'Abunai' (Prettu much the Japanese word for 'Danger!') and 'Osoru' meaning To Fear. So yeah. Fear and Danger in Las Hoenns. Or something. ^^;

The thing about Illumise is that the 'se' isn't silent, but audible. So yeah. ^^;
 
D

Dumdadum

If you go to http://www.pokemondungeon.com/pokedex.htm and look up any pokémon you wish, they seem to have the meanings to the majority of pokémon names (but not all, like celebi or xatu)
 
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Linkachu

Linkachu

Hero of Pizza
Staff member
Administrator
Meowth_Queen_101 said:
They are right!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Thats cool!!!!! :!: :!: :!: :!: :!:
Click to expand...

This is what I meant before by a pointless post. Please, PLEASE stop replying to old topics if you don't have anything productive to add :?
 
S

Shadowfang

Pikachu- American Mountain Pika

Wailmer- Whale merperson.

Persian- Named from a cat breed in Persia similar in shape and size, believed to be a god. :lol:
 
M

Meangreen

Shadowfang, If you took the time to read the above posts and Links you would know that Pikachu has nothing to do with the noble pika, and that persian has already been discussed.

Think before you speak or uh... type.
 
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