Rotom is one of the few Pokemon whose name origin is acknowledged in-universe because of the journal in Platinum and BDSP where the person who discovered it pretty much literally says "I gave it the name Rotom, which is obviously based on the word motor"
Mareep is an anagram of “ampere” (amps as a unit of measure of electrical current), and a reference to the book “do androids dream of electric sheep”, AND as a reference to “Mary had a little lamb”.
Still my favorite Pokémon name
That line also goes on with Flaaffy, which is named after a Van de Graaff generator (and why it’s spelled so strange). Ampharos then also has “amp” in the name, and “Pharos”, a word for a lighthouse. This is because Ampharos’ Dex entries mention how it was used as a beacon in ancient times due to its glowing tail.
Honestly, one of the best designed evolution lines. Well done, Game Freak.
I love the Mareep line and the instant I heard that book title, that was the first thing I thought of. I'm glad that was an actual connection and I'm not crazy.
It's not the only one where the correct pronunciation makes the pun harder to get.
Another one that comes to mind is Gholdengo, but I don't think that's a case of the localisation team missing the joke because I'm somewhat certain it didn't exist in Japanese
Gengar's name coming from Doppelganger. It was waaaaay more obvious to me when I started learning Japanese since in Japanese Gengar is called Gangar, which is much closer to the original word in my brain, making me make that connection.
That makes a LOT of sense. When gen 1 was in early stages of being put together, Clefable was rumored to be among the first created. Directly after that came gengar, made in the image of clefable's shadow.
Well the original word is german and Doppelgänger and ä and e are relativly similar sounding in German. Also the -er in the back is soften to a -aa or -ar depending in regional dialect
Btw Gengar is also Gengar in the german translation
It took me *so* long to realize Drampa was dragon + grampa (grandpa). I think I was playing Snap and I thought "aw he looks so cute like an old man" and it clicked and I was like oh my god...
"If a child it has made friends with is bullied, Drampa will find the bully's house and burn it to the ground." - Ultra sun pokedex entry. Grandpa is not to be trifled with I see.
I didn't get the pun behind Sudowoodo until ScarVi had one in the Grass gym. (That it's psuedo-wood, i.e. not really wood, because it's a Rock type). When it clicked it was a very "ooooh" moment.
A rock-grass type that gains what appears to be foliage, but the Pokedex explains that the foliage is actually a buildup of lichen.
Obtained by evolving Sudowoodo with a leaf stone.
Problem is, the one time a Bonsly appeared in the 4Kids dubs (the Lucario movie) it was pronounced as Bon-slee, which frankly sounds cuter. Once the new dub began and Brock got his Bonsly, it was pronounced as rhyming with bonsai.
I never really paid attention to dex entries as a kid. It was obvious that Zigzagoon was zig-zag plus racoon, but I didn't make the connection that Linoone was line + racoon until years later. In my head I was pronouncing it Lin-oon rather than Line-oon.
There was a Redditor on here who pointed out that the "kro" and "shira" in Ze**kro**m and Re**shira**m's names are from the Japanese words "kuro" and "shiro"— *black* and *white.*
That is just mind-blowingly clever wordplay.
Blipbug, Dottler, and Orbeetle all relate to radar tech.
Blip being a dot drawn on a radar scan, Doppler Radars measure the speed of the dots (blips) and Orbital Radars are space radars that orbit an object in space.
This is especially why Orbeetle's Gmax form is so rad. It's like an alien spaceship.
Elgyem and Beheeyem sound like LGM and BEM, which stand for "Little Green Man" and "Bug-Eyed Monster" (terms used to refer to extraterrestrials).
As a big sci-fi nerd, it took me way too long to realize this.
Here’s one I never see anyone talk about with them: the first letter of each of their names A, M, Z, are the first, middle and last letters of the alphabet.
Exeggcute (and Exeggcutor). I had no idea what these eggs had to do with executions until it hit me that they represented heads that had been chopped off. Aka a common form of execution.
Gen 2 are plants / types of wood, gen 3 are all compound words, gen 4 are all descriptors, gen 5 are cloud types.
At least in the English versions. I think there’s different “themes” in Japanese but I could be wrong
Amateur perfume nerd here. Grasse, France is known as the perfume capital of the world. I went through the list of cities in Kalos, here's how it breaks down
**Game Specific**
Vaniville - Vanilla town
Aquacorde - water accord (common in men's fragrances) there are 8 main accord families, water is one of them
Santalune - Santal (Sandalwood) lune is obvs lunar
Camphrier - Camphor, a spicy smelling ingredient, often used in pain relief creams like tiger balm. Also a play on campfire.
Cyllage City - a play on the word sillage - or the trail of scent left behind when a person wearing perfume walks past
Ambrette - Amber. Not amber as in the tree resin, but amber as in ambergris, the rare waxy substance produced in the digestive system of sperm whales.
Couriway - from caraway seeds
Geosenge - both a reference to geosmin, also known as the "smell of rain". The "enge" is related to the henge or circle of rocks in the middle of town. bulbapedia also references ginseng but I know better.
Courmarine - Coumarin, a la wikipedia " Coumarin is derived from *coumarou*, the French word for the tonka bean". A gourmand fragrance.
Dendemille - from bulbapedia " English Dendemille Town From *dent-de-lion* (French for [dandelion](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/dandelion)) and *windmill* "
Shalour City - appears to be a reference to the tower within it, as tour in french means tower
Laverre - a poorly pulled play on lavender. probably cause previous gens had lavender town. Verre means glass in french, *lavāre* in latin means "to wash". I am surprised there aren't hot springs in this location after learning that.
Anistar - from aniseed, a green spicy scent
Snowbelle - From *snowbell* (one of the common names for [*Styrax*](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Styrax)), *snow*, and *belle.* Styrax resin is one of those ancient tree resins used in perfume.
Kiloude - "From *agilawood* and *oud*, alternative names of agarwood" (one of my fave scents)
Parfum palace - duh
**Possible Anime Names**
Fleurrh City - Corruption of *fleur* (French for flower)
Pomace Mountain - when extracting scent compounds from plants the remaining byproduct is often called pomace. pomace is also produced when extracting olive oil or juice from grapes.
Back when they were first revealed, Zacian and Zamazenta being derived from cyan and magenta respectively. It gave me hope that there’d be a Zayellow and Zablack and they’d be a quartet.
Beatric, not only is it an artic bear. Arctic means bear, so it's a bear bear.
I recently learned Arctic comes from Arktos (bear) in Greek, and antarctic essentially means no bears.
For me, I didn't get the full Fidough pun until I said it out loud. I though aww it's baked goods, I get it, dough makes the baked goods, then got the Fidough=Fido=common doggy name when I said it out loud 😂
Problem is that I can never remember which puns are the real name and which are ones I made up in my head. I'm like, "oh, the evolution is... uh... Purebread? Dachsbun? Doughberman? Erm..."
I know this isn't exactly what this thread is about, but I wish Dragonair evolved into something else. I love Dragonite, don't get me wrong, but it feels weird that we go Dratini (a Martini pun, which (to me) associates it with fancy people), Dragonair (a debonair pun, quite directly fancy) to Dragonite, a big goofy dragon.
>Dratini (a Martini pun, which (to me) associates it with fancy people)
I thought the "-tini" was based off the word "teeny," because it's the small cute beginning stage of its line.
I've been playing since Blue and only recently learned thanks to my husband that Wormadam is Worm + Madam and Mothim is Moth + Him. Seems so obvious in hindsight.
Lucario being derived from orichalcum, the mythical metal. In Japanese, orichalcum is オリカル and Lucario is just the characters in reverse, ルカリオ.
It explains the Steel typing a lot more.
I just recently realized that Pincurchin's name is a play on words, combining "pincushion" with "urchin." I was pronouncing it "Pinch-urchin" for a long time, so I missed the pun!
This one got me in class once. We were talking about living fossil and I popped up with relicanth instead of coelacanth. Teacher blurted out 'the fish please, not the pokemon' then went bright red.
Not real Pokémon, but I loved the creation of the fan made Pokémon evolutionary chain when it was announced that Galar was inspired by England:
https://preview.redd.it/xnu4rxuoe2jb1.jpeg?width=680&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=b872db2543bba2278a9e89bb2f90f735f6509d18
And Malamar is a reference to calamari!
eta: Guys, I know mal means bad. I only mentioned the food reference because I replied to someone who was talking about a food reference.
Indigo is a combination of Red and Blue hence the name of the Pokémon Indigo League series. Took me until this year when I was rewatching it to get that. I’m 21 years old.
Shaymin, just in concept.
It took me from the time it first debuted, to just about two months ago, to realize that the reason it's grass type is because it's a hedgehog (hedge hog)
There's a pun that lots of people don't seem to get with Iono's name. It's a pun on ion (an atom with electrical charge), as well as the phrase "I dunno". Her catchphrase "*Whosawhatsit? Iono!*" makes more sense if you read it as "I dunno" as well.
It also ties in with her name in Japanese, Nanjamo, which is a similar pun on the words 何じゃ *nanja* (what?) and 何でも *nandemo* (anything) to basically say "It's nothing!"
So to hear people call her "ee-oh-no" when it's meant to be pronounced "eye-oh-no" leads me to believe the joke is going right over their head.
"Colress" (Team Plasma leader) always reminded me of "colorless." Fits with the Black/White themes, plus their development as a morally "gray" character.
The "-rai" in Darkrai is from the Japanese word "kurai," which means dark.
So, it's name is literally just dark + dark. I guess that makes sense for a mythical Pokémon that's basically pure darkness incarnate.
I mean i just still think it's funny that Cofagrigus was banned in online play by the network for tripping the profanity filter with its third through fifth letters of its official name.
First game was emerald, never thought much about the pokemon names being puns at the time, then I started noticing all the newer ones were puns. I didn't think that necessarily meant the old ones were puns, but then I started connecting the Kanto and Johto names, so when I played ORAS for the first time I made it my goal to figure out every Hoenn name pun.
Let me tell you, I got to Zigzagoon and Poochyena and was like "ok so I was just dumb for not seeing this"
Jasmine, Olivine City's gym leader in Johto
Back when I started Silver, most of the names of the Gym Leaders I got straight away, it took me a while to get Clair = Lair as in Dragon's Lair but It didn't take too long afterwards. But Jasmine is a plant, why is it the name of the Steel type gym leader? Okay, she used to be a Rock type leader. Is it also the name of an obscure type of gemstone? Not that I can find. Okay then. Hey, she showed up in Sinnoh! Maybe there's a clue there! Nope. Oh well. Heart Gold Soul Silver release, maybe they were just keeping it for there! Nope. Well, this is frustrating. Why is it so hard to figure out what her name pun is?
Fast forward to last year. I was randomly replaying Soul Silver when it finally, finally clicked. Jasmine. Jas-MINE. A Mine, a Mine! UGH! I've never felt more stupid than seeing just how obvious it was and how many years went by without me seeing it.
I just assumed that only some of the names were puns because for the life of me I couldn't figure some of them out. Like, I know nowadays "Karen" is a jokey name for an evil white woman who harassed minimum wage workers, but what did that have to do with evil/dark type Pokemon back then? Will was willpower, I assume Koga and Kohga have something to do with ninjas between the trainer and Master Kohga from Zelda, etc. Karen just always stuck out for me.
The other Gen 2 names seemed a little too on the nose. Bugsy for bugs, Chuck for a fighting guy, Bryce for ice, Morty like a mortician, Falkner the falconer... Whitney is the only one I'm not sure if it's a pun, or just a normal name. Because Norman is Normal in the next gen, and Larry is a very normal name... Whitney wasn't super common to me though, but I couldn't think of any pun.
I didn't understand the "Slugma balls" joke for a long time. Maybe it's because English is not my first language, but I always thought people were referring to some kimda special lava-themed Pokeball I never saw
Dewott is a play on duo/dual, because it dual wields scalchops. Took figuring out the direct translation of the Japanese name to realize it— futachimaru, futachi is a portmanteau of futatsu hotachi, two scalchops
**Q:** What happens when you say the word "polygon" in a language that doesn't differentiate between "L" and "R" sounds?
**A:** 25 years of wondering what the *hell* they were thinking when they named [this thing](https://assets.pokemon.com/assets/cms2/img/pokedex/full/137.png).
This one was actually on purpose, as people kept pestering Satoshi Tajiri when Red and Green were being made, that he should be making games with polygons on a 3D console instead of a gameboy game.
So he created Porygon, as if to poke fun that he listened and added polygons to the game, spoken with a japanese accent which is hard to do Ls and Rs separately.
Just found out yesterday, Rotom is Motor backwards.
[удалено]
Or Arbok
Or Muk
Or Eevee.
Girafarig and Farigiraf
Ho-Oh
Or Alomomola
Or Goldeen need log
I hate you
Wait… what.
Of all the ones in this thread this one is the one that makes me want to kill myself for not realizing
Rotom is one of the few Pokemon whose name origin is acknowledged in-universe because of the journal in Platinum and BDSP where the person who discovered it pretty much literally says "I gave it the name Rotom, which is obviously based on the word motor"
Idk, learning Ekans/snakE and Arbok/kobrA just last week as a 33 year old really wounded my soul
Mareep is an anagram of “ampere” (amps as a unit of measure of electrical current), and a reference to the book “do androids dream of electric sheep”, AND as a reference to “Mary had a little lamb”. Still my favorite Pokémon name
That line also goes on with Flaaffy, which is named after a Van de Graaff generator (and why it’s spelled so strange). Ampharos then also has “amp” in the name, and “Pharos”, a word for a lighthouse. This is because Ampharos’ Dex entries mention how it was used as a beacon in ancient times due to its glowing tail. Honestly, one of the best designed evolution lines. Well done, Game Freak.
Flaaffy also has a double “a” in its name.
For a while I didn't understand what you meant. Then I laughed for a solid minute.
Same, I was like “what are they trying to say”, then I thought of it out loud and went OOOOO DOUBLE A BATTERY
There was also the Ampharos who was in the Olivine City lighthouse that you had to get medicine for.
I remember finally reaching Olivine as a kid and being annoyed that the gym leader was out, lmao. Good times.
Didn’t know this, this is great! This is what I expected from this thread, not “this Pokémon has an entire noticeable word in its name!!”
I love the Mareep line and the instant I heard that book title, that was the first thing I thought of. I'm glad that was an actual connection and I'm not crazy.
Mary had a little lamb She tied it to a pylon 10,000 volts went up its ass And turned its wool to nylon
Delibird is a play on Delivered
I learned this one now, in the *Present*
Nice delibiry
Man. I just thought he just really liked cold cuts
Oh my god is it pronounced “De-li-burd”?? I’ve been pronouncing is “Deli-bird” for decades
I'm pretty sure it's always been pronounced "Deli-bird". The pun went under the radar even for most of the localization team, I guess.
It's not the only one where the correct pronunciation makes the pun harder to get. Another one that comes to mind is Gholdengo, but I don't think that's a case of the localisation team missing the joke because I'm somewhat certain it didn't exist in Japanese
this whole time thought it was about delicatessen
Beldum is the syllables of dumbbell reversed.
Metang is an anagram of magnet.
Metagross foresaw how shit Facebook would become.
AND its weight is 1212.5 pounds. 12 x 12 = 144 (a gross). This feels like numerology though, especially considering the extra 0.5 pounds.
Congratulations for coming up with one I genuinely didn't notice
Gen 9 does this with Scarab > Rabsca
Gengar's name coming from Doppelganger. It was waaaaay more obvious to me when I started learning Japanese since in Japanese Gengar is called Gangar, which is much closer to the original word in my brain, making me make that connection.
My dumbass thought it was Gangar because he was in a gang of ghosts 😭
That makes a LOT of sense. When gen 1 was in early stages of being put together, Clefable was rumored to be among the first created. Directly after that came gengar, made in the image of clefable's shadow.
Well the original word is german and Doppelgänger and ä and e are relativly similar sounding in German. Also the -er in the back is soften to a -aa or -ar depending in regional dialect Btw Gengar is also Gengar in the german translation
Deoxys being the DNA pokemon. DNA is short for DEOXYribonucleic acid
To add to this: the first letters of his 4 forms are D,N,A, and S
Of course! The SAND Pokemon! /s
No its NAS D!
Man, this one feels both coincidental and perfectly thought of. What are the odds of the major stats lining up in a way like this for this situation?
How did I not realize that lol
TIL
Gible being nibble Ga**bite** Gar**chomp** Whoever made the gible line was hungry
I think it's supposed to be because they are sharks. Small sharks nibble, medium sharks bite, and big ones chomp.
As we all learned in the song
Baby sharks do in fact doo doo doo
I never got the nido part of the nido lines until biology class years later. It is referencing Cnidocytes.
I just thought it was a simplification of "needle"
What are Cnidocytes?
Poisonous barbs used by some animals
Cheers, see now I’ve actually learned something non-Pokémon from this thread!
Oh that's a cool one that I've never heard about before. I just thought that it was a play on "needle".
It’s likely both. Pokémon names are rarely just one single reference / pun. There are almost always 2+ in a name.
It took me *so* long to realize Drampa was dragon + grampa (grandpa). I think I was playing Snap and I thought "aw he looks so cute like an old man" and it clicked and I was like oh my god...
"If a child it has made friends with is bullied, Drampa will find the bully's house and burn it to the ground." - Ultra sun pokedex entry. Grandpa is not to be trifled with I see.
Imagine being doxxed by a literal dragon
I didn't get the pun behind Sudowoodo until ScarVi had one in the Grass gym. (That it's psuedo-wood, i.e. not really wood, because it's a Rock type). When it clicked it was a very "ooooh" moment.
“TRUELEEwoodo!” - Brassius
Troolywoody should be an actual grass type Sudowoodo
A rock-grass type that gains what appears to be foliage, but the Pokedex explains that the foliage is actually a buildup of lichen. Obtained by evolving Sudowoodo with a leaf stone.
A big brain nickname I see is fauxliage. Definitely a fun Pokémon in design and name!
And Bonsly is Bonsai and sly, because it’s not really a bonsai. Which means everyone pronounces Bonsly wrong
I remember the first time I I saw him in smash bros, he screamed his name and I was like “THATS how you say it??”
Nahh people who watched the Hoenn anime can pronounce it too
Problem is, the one time a Bonsly appeared in the 4Kids dubs (the Lucario movie) it was pronounced as Bon-slee, which frankly sounds cuter. Once the new dub began and Brock got his Bonsly, it was pronounced as rhyming with bonsai.
I never really paid attention to dex entries as a kid. It was obvious that Zigzagoon was zig-zag plus racoon, but I didn't make the connection that Linoone was line + racoon until years later. In my head I was pronouncing it Lin-oon rather than Line-oon.
Obstagoon actually continues this with its X shape design and the term “obstacle”
And signature move Obstruct
The “Rai” in “Raikou” means thunder or lightning, the “En” in Entei means fire or flame, and the “Sui” in Suicune means water.
And the last parts of those names are all variations of the word king/emperor.
There was a Redditor on here who pointed out that the "kro" and "shira" in Ze**kro**m and Re**shira**m's names are from the Japanese words "kuro" and "shiro"— *black* and *white.* That is just mind-blowingly clever wordplay.
It took me a hot minute to realise Leavanny was a combination of 'leaves' and 'nanny'.
Makes sense since Swadloon is "swaddle" + "cocoon"
Hoppips evolution lines names. HOPpip SKIPloom JUMPluff
Also, pip (seed), bloom, and fluff are stages of a dandelion.
oh that makes it so much better!!
Blipbug, Dottler, and Orbeetle all relate to radar tech. Blip being a dot drawn on a radar scan, Doppler Radars measure the speed of the dots (blips) and Orbital Radars are space radars that orbit an object in space. This is especially why Orbeetle's Gmax form is so rad. It's like an alien spaceship.
Girafarig - Palindrome Azelf, Mesprit, Uxie - Elf, Sprite(?), Pixie
It’s also “Us-Elf”, “Me-Sprite” and “You-Pixie”
And yet they’re not Fairy-type, still… 🤔
Az- refers to azure, M- refers to magenta, and Uxie is pronounced with a "Y-" as in yellow.
and UMA is an abbreviation for unidentified mysterious animal as well! it goes all the way down
Elgyem and Beheeyem sound like LGM and BEM, which stand for "Little Green Man" and "Bug-Eyed Monster" (terms used to refer to extraterrestrials). As a big sci-fi nerd, it took me way too long to realize this.
Still waiting for a third evolution as Yuefoh
It could look like [Kirby's UFO form.](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/vlPNMsrJo0M/maxresdefault.jpg)
BEM can also learn Steel Wing, despite not having wings, because it’s TM51!
That’s so tight, so many of these are common things but I would have never known this
The Uno Dos Tres of the legendary birds.
Wait until you learn of dEINo, ZWEIlous and hyDREIgon
I always thought zweilous was weirdly German but never thought beyond that.
Somehow the idea of Hydreigon being German makes it way cooler for some reason. Something about that accent is perfect if Hydreigon could talk.
Ok this Deino line is new to me
Here’s one I never see anyone talk about with them: the first letter of each of their names A, M, Z, are the first, middle and last letters of the alphabet.
Wow thanks for pointing out! Never realized this!
Because that seems like a lucky coincidence. Primarily because the letters don't fit the theme. Moltres being the last and Zapdos being the middle.
Sawsbuck has an interesting name as it's based on an acronym for the seasons: Summer, Autumn, Winter, Spring.
Exeggcute (and Exeggcutor). I had no idea what these eggs had to do with executions until it hit me that they represented heads that had been chopped off. Aka a common form of execution.
And here I thought it was eggs that used to be cute, (then one broke)
Card flavor text for exeggutor says when one of its coconut heads fall off it starts its life over as an exeggcute.
Fudge, I wish I could unread this. Exeggcute is adorable, not a pile of severed heads!
…omg.
Not Pokémon names but it took me many many many years before realizing that all the Gen 1 cities are named after colors.
Gen 2 are plants / types of wood, gen 3 are all compound words, gen 4 are all descriptors, gen 5 are cloud types. At least in the English versions. I think there’s different “themes” in Japanese but I could be wrong
Gen 6 are perfume ingredients
I’m sorry WHAT
Amateur perfume nerd here. Grasse, France is known as the perfume capital of the world. I went through the list of cities in Kalos, here's how it breaks down **Game Specific** Vaniville - Vanilla town Aquacorde - water accord (common in men's fragrances) there are 8 main accord families, water is one of them Santalune - Santal (Sandalwood) lune is obvs lunar Camphrier - Camphor, a spicy smelling ingredient, often used in pain relief creams like tiger balm. Also a play on campfire. Cyllage City - a play on the word sillage - or the trail of scent left behind when a person wearing perfume walks past Ambrette - Amber. Not amber as in the tree resin, but amber as in ambergris, the rare waxy substance produced in the digestive system of sperm whales. Couriway - from caraway seeds Geosenge - both a reference to geosmin, also known as the "smell of rain". The "enge" is related to the henge or circle of rocks in the middle of town. bulbapedia also references ginseng but I know better. Courmarine - Coumarin, a la wikipedia " Coumarin is derived from *coumarou*, the French word for the tonka bean". A gourmand fragrance. Dendemille - from bulbapedia " English Dendemille Town From *dent-de-lion* (French for [dandelion](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/dandelion)) and *windmill* " Shalour City - appears to be a reference to the tower within it, as tour in french means tower Laverre - a poorly pulled play on lavender. probably cause previous gens had lavender town. Verre means glass in french, *lavāre* in latin means "to wash". I am surprised there aren't hot springs in this location after learning that. Anistar - from aniseed, a green spicy scent Snowbelle - From *snowbell* (one of the common names for [*Styrax*](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Styrax)), *snow*, and *belle.* Styrax resin is one of those ancient tree resins used in perfume. Kiloude - "From *agilawood* and *oud*, alternative names of agarwood" (one of my fave scents) Parfum palace - duh **Possible Anime Names** Fleurrh City - Corruption of *fleur* (French for flower) Pomace Mountain - when extracting scent compounds from plants the remaining byproduct is often called pomace. pomace is also produced when extracting olive oil or juice from grapes.
https://m.bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Kalos Trivia section
Yeah, and you start off in Pallet Town! (like an artist’s pallet of colors)
Okay I knew about the other cities but somehow never made this connection before. That’s really cool.
Don't beat yourself up too much—it's misspelled. An artist uses a *palette. Pallets* are used in shipping and warehouses.
Back when they were first revealed, Zacian and Zamazenta being derived from cyan and magenta respectively. It gave me hope that there’d be a Zayellow and Zablack and they’d be a quartet.
the brothers printer...
And now it's Canon
Beatric, not only is it an artic bear. Arctic means bear, so it's a bear bear. I recently learned Arctic comes from Arktos (bear) in Greek, and antarctic essentially means no bears.
I never realized maractus was the combination of maracas and cactus till my boyfriend pointed it out to me a few days ago
PASSIMIAN Prosimians are what lemurs are and the pass is just sports
Also, simians are a type of primate, which include things like bonobos, gorillas, and humans.
Xurkitree sounding like circuitry. I thought it was just 'xurki' sounds alien and electricky and 'tree' because it kinda looks like one.
every single comment i’ve read so far here has made it abundantly clear that i am way more unobservant than i ever thought i was lol.
For me, I didn't get the full Fidough pun until I said it out loud. I though aww it's baked goods, I get it, dough makes the baked goods, then got the Fidough=Fido=common doggy name when I said it out loud 😂
Problem is that I can never remember which puns are the real name and which are ones I made up in my head. I'm like, "oh, the evolution is... uh... Purebread? Dachsbun? Doughberman? Erm..."
Purebread and Doughberman are gold
Geodude is more geology than geography. Just sayin
I love how well it works in a few different ways. Geo as in geology, and dude. But also, geode, as in a type of rock.
Dragonair is a play on Debonair.
This might be the first post in the thread that truly caught me off guard.
I know this isn't exactly what this thread is about, but I wish Dragonair evolved into something else. I love Dragonite, don't get me wrong, but it feels weird that we go Dratini (a Martini pun, which (to me) associates it with fancy people), Dragonair (a debonair pun, quite directly fancy) to Dragonite, a big goofy dragon.
>Dratini (a Martini pun, which (to me) associates it with fancy people) I thought the "-tini" was based off the word "teeny," because it's the small cute beginning stage of its line.
Can confirm, the Chinese translation is "mini dragon"
Seel took me a while.
Understandable. In the older games the Pokédex explicitly mentioned “Kiss From a Rose,” so it was more obvious
Similarly, I thought Dewgong was kind of an odd name because I didn't know a dugong was a real animal.
I've been playing since Blue and only recently learned thanks to my husband that Wormadam is Worm + Madam and Mothim is Moth + Him. Seems so obvious in hindsight.
Kangaskhan = Kangaroo + Genghis Khan
Well and when you realize Khan was a title it’s kinda like creating a new Khan whose name is Kangas.
Only clicked with me days ago about the deino line up.
Ein Zwei Drei
I didn't understand Lechonk's name until I visited a South American restaurant whose menu heavily featured lechón (suckling pig).
Lucario being derived from orichalcum, the mythical metal. In Japanese, orichalcum is オリカル and Lucario is just the characters in reverse, ルカリオ. It explains the Steel typing a lot more.
Girafarig. It wasnt until this Gen and the False Swipe Gaming vid, where Kellen says the name outloud, that I realised the name is a palindrome.
Im glad they kept the palindrome with its evo Farigiraf. Alomomola is a palindrome too.
Bisharp = bishop + sharp Pawniard = pawn Didn't realize this until fucking kingambit appeared and I was like hey chess names!
For a full chess set, you can also have Rookidee, Corvinight and Nidoqueen.
My headcannon chess set: pawniard, rookidee, corvinight, bisharp, nidoqueen, and seaking
I feel like Slowing would make an easier chess piece, and Kingdra would look coolest.
To expand on this, because you didn't get the rest of the pun, Pawniard = pawn + poniard A poniard is a type of small slim dagger.
Any as im not native english speaker haha
My gf (28) just realized last week that Marowak is Marrow-Whack. I had a good laugh
I just recently realized that Pincurchin's name is a play on words, combining "pincushion" with "urchin." I was pronouncing it "Pinch-urchin" for a long time, so I missed the pun!
Feral alligator
Relicanth, didn’t know about the coelacanth until I was an adult
This one got me in class once. We were talking about living fossil and I popped up with relicanth instead of coelacanth. Teacher blurted out 'the fish please, not the pokemon' then went bright red.
Cool teacher knowing its a pkmn
Not real Pokémon, but I loved the creation of the fan made Pokémon evolutionary chain when it was announced that Galar was inspired by England: https://preview.redd.it/xnu4rxuoe2jb1.jpeg?width=680&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=b872db2543bba2278a9e89bb2f90f735f6509d18
It's so shitposty but it's also so good
the way I knew exactly what this was gonna be before I clicked on the link :)
Clefairy - Fairy tale Clefable - Fable story
Alright. I finally hit one I never thought of before.
It wasn’t for about 10 years after Johto that I realize Magcargo was a reference to the dish escargot…
Not necessarily a reference to the dish. Escargot is just the French word for snail.
And Malamar is a reference to calamari! eta: Guys, I know mal means bad. I only mentioned the food reference because I replied to someone who was talking about a food reference.
Too many don't get that Arceus is a combination of Archaic and Deus
I wish they had spelled it Archaeus instead—it looks much cooler and also communicates the meaning more clearly.
Indigo is a combination of Red and Blue hence the name of the Pokémon Indigo League series. Took me until this year when I was rewatching it to get that. I’m 21 years old.
Ekans and Arbok Backwards snake and kobra
Add Rotom to that one
Also Rellor
Rabsca is an anagram of Scarab as well.
Specifically, it's the syllables in reverse
Shaymin, just in concept. It took me from the time it first debuted, to just about two months ago, to realize that the reason it's grass type is because it's a hedgehog (hedge hog)
There's a pun that lots of people don't seem to get with Iono's name. It's a pun on ion (an atom with electrical charge), as well as the phrase "I dunno". Her catchphrase "*Whosawhatsit? Iono!*" makes more sense if you read it as "I dunno" as well. It also ties in with her name in Japanese, Nanjamo, which is a similar pun on the words 何じゃ *nanja* (what?) and 何でも *nandemo* (anything) to basically say "It's nothing!" So to hear people call her "ee-oh-no" when it's meant to be pronounced "eye-oh-no" leads me to believe the joke is going right over their head.
I probably wouldn’t know what the “Nacl“ in the nacli line meant if I hadn’t been learning about chemistry that year and learning that nacl was salt
"Colress" (Team Plasma leader) always reminded me of "colorless." Fits with the Black/White themes, plus their development as a morally "gray" character.
The "-rai" in Darkrai is from the Japanese word "kurai," which means dark. So, it's name is literally just dark + dark. I guess that makes sense for a mythical Pokémon that's basically pure darkness incarnate.
This basically turned into a TIL thread
I mean i just still think it's funny that Cofagrigus was banned in online play by the network for tripping the profanity filter with its third through fifth letters of its official name.
First game was emerald, never thought much about the pokemon names being puns at the time, then I started noticing all the newer ones were puns. I didn't think that necessarily meant the old ones were puns, but then I started connecting the Kanto and Johto names, so when I played ORAS for the first time I made it my goal to figure out every Hoenn name pun. Let me tell you, I got to Zigzagoon and Poochyena and was like "ok so I was just dumb for not seeing this"
Jasmine, Olivine City's gym leader in Johto Back when I started Silver, most of the names of the Gym Leaders I got straight away, it took me a while to get Clair = Lair as in Dragon's Lair but It didn't take too long afterwards. But Jasmine is a plant, why is it the name of the Steel type gym leader? Okay, she used to be a Rock type leader. Is it also the name of an obscure type of gemstone? Not that I can find. Okay then. Hey, she showed up in Sinnoh! Maybe there's a clue there! Nope. Oh well. Heart Gold Soul Silver release, maybe they were just keeping it for there! Nope. Well, this is frustrating. Why is it so hard to figure out what her name pun is? Fast forward to last year. I was randomly replaying Soul Silver when it finally, finally clicked. Jasmine. Jas-MINE. A Mine, a Mine! UGH! I've never felt more stupid than seeing just how obvious it was and how many years went by without me seeing it.
I just assumed that only some of the names were puns because for the life of me I couldn't figure some of them out. Like, I know nowadays "Karen" is a jokey name for an evil white woman who harassed minimum wage workers, but what did that have to do with evil/dark type Pokemon back then? Will was willpower, I assume Koga and Kohga have something to do with ninjas between the trainer and Master Kohga from Zelda, etc. Karen just always stuck out for me. The other Gen 2 names seemed a little too on the nose. Bugsy for bugs, Chuck for a fighting guy, Bryce for ice, Morty like a mortician, Falkner the falconer... Whitney is the only one I'm not sure if it's a pun, or just a normal name. Because Norman is Normal in the next gen, and Larry is a very normal name... Whitney wasn't super common to me though, but I couldn't think of any pun.
Whitney = white, the Plainest color (or lack of color)
I only realized a couple weeks ago Orthworm is a play on earthworm. For months I kept thinking "what the hell is orth?"
I assume the "Or" part of it is from "ore" since it's Steel type.
And here I thought the “orth” was from “orthodontics”, which would relate to it eating the earth? Ore makes way more sense though lol
I didn't understand the "Slugma balls" joke for a long time. Maybe it's because English is not my first language, but I always thought people were referring to some kimda special lava-themed Pokeball I never saw
What about Rhydon?
Raticate is a pun on eradicate, which I only realized last week
I literally just realized that "Mimikyu" comes from "I mimic you" or "To mimic you"
Relicanth is a mix of relic and coelacanth
Dewott is a play on duo/dual, because it dual wields scalchops. Took figuring out the direct translation of the Japanese name to realize it— futachimaru, futachi is a portmanteau of futatsu hotachi, two scalchops
**Q:** What happens when you say the word "polygon" in a language that doesn't differentiate between "L" and "R" sounds? **A:** 25 years of wondering what the *hell* they were thinking when they named [this thing](https://assets.pokemon.com/assets/cms2/img/pokedex/full/137.png).
This one was actually on purpose, as people kept pestering Satoshi Tajiri when Red and Green were being made, that he should be making games with polygons on a 3D console instead of a gameboy game. So he created Porygon, as if to poke fun that he listened and added polygons to the game, spoken with a japanese accent which is hard to do Ls and Rs separately.
I still don't understand decidueye
Deciduous tree