Pokémon Do you nickname your Pokémon in the games?

[Suguri]

I used to not give nicknames to the Pokémon I catch, but I do it very often now. It gives them a little more personality and an excuse for me to make niche references to the people and things I love and enjoy. For example, in my Scarlet team, I have an Ogerpon whose nickname (Jankenpyon) comes from the Japanese hand game in PaRappa the Rapper and both Snooky the Mimikyu and Henri the Bellibolt were named after characters from the Woobles (a crochet kit company)! BTW, everyone in my team except Orthworm has nicknames.

So I've been wondering lately. Do you nickname your Pokémon in the games? Feel free to share some names if you have any! I also included a poll because I felt like it.

 

[LambdaDelta]

only time I don't really is breeding duds I just end of tossing out anyways

 

[Lancelot]

I try to, but this is mostly because I've got bored in recent games and the only reason I play them is to do a nuzlocke.

My most recent nuzlocke I called a Kommo-o 'Chimichanga' and I am obsessed with it.

I also have an Ambipom called Dishwasher that I'm obsessed with because of this video.

 

[lasagne_of_death]

Huh. Looks like a lot of people nickname them. To be honest, I always forget their pokemon name if it's not preset, so I don't nickname them for fear I'll forget what they're actually called. Pretty silly, but it helps me so that what I do.

 

[Seastar]

I usually nickname 90% of my Pokemon. Not every name is clever and sometimes they get reused, especially between different games.

 

[Croconaw]

I don’t. I let them keep their original names.

 

[Dim]

Sometimes. Usually for playthrough teams or shinies. Or a funny name I come up with for go. If a name comes up that is.

Some Examples: I've nicknamed my shiny Mimikyu "Snap" as a reference to it's neck snapping and head dropping from the animation of it's "disguise" ability being busted. Also, seeing how it's Pikachu face is drawn from crayons or quite possibly chalk, it's also a small reference to the character "Snap" from Chalk Zone.

I've nicknamed my shiny Goodra "Mango" because of the bright yellow/orange body, and also he's sweet ^^

I've named my shiny blue scarf Umbreon from pokemon go "Saïx" after a Kingdom Hearts character who's a member of Organization 13. He has blue hair, yellow eyes and derives power from the moon... no brainer there.

I've caught a XXS shadow torchic I ended up purifying to 4 star IVs and using it regularly as my mega. I named him "Chicken Lit" quite literally short for Chicken Little due to his size and also literally being a chicken that's lit.

I've named my shiny Incineroar "Kid Cat" obviously because Kid Cat is a white and red cat who's a jock/body builder.

I've nicknamed my shiny Maschiff "Bella" in honor of my dog who was a small black cockapoo. I caught her in a master ball because of how special Bella was to me and also purple was her color.

I have many more but these are my favorites ^^

 

[stitchmaker]

First game gave them no nicknames.
For the Switch games I started using nicknames for my Team and Shiny Pokemon. It's easier to keep track because I play on 2 Switch and have extra Profiles. Used all flowers, all Cafe items and all food for different Profiles. One is called Pickles.

 

[LoyalDragonfly]

I name Pokemon in nearly every situation except for when I'm hatching for shinies and just going to release the unshiny babies anyway. Even dex filler Pokemon get names. I also reuse names for certain species of Pokemon across multiple games, especially if it's a Pokemon I'm fond of and use often. For example, I'll name my Venusaurs Bunthorne after my favorite Gilbert & Sullivan character (plus, it just seems fitting for him anyway). Scolipede is always Dozer both for his dozy expression and partially based on the Doomdozer YuGiOh card.

An exception for my 'name every Pokemon' rule is that I don't nickname legendaries because I prefer thinking of legendaries as one-of-a-kind, and thus its species name is its name.

 

[Doo]

I hardly play Pokémon but I don’t usually name them. I’m really not creative and I hate coming up with names any time I have named a Pokémon, I’ve just called it like a shortened version of its actual name or something similar to it

 

[SkyKnight03]

I've been nicknaming since I first played Pokemon at 4 years old.

Not nicknaming does not exist for me.

 

[ShadowLelouch97]

I used to not give nicknames either, but now I do. I even have to repeat some names for certain Pokemon because of how fond I am of a name with a certain species.

 

[Rainy.Nights]

I used to sometimes when I was younger. But after awhile I thought the nicknames became too confusing for organization and learning names of newer pokemon so I stopped doing that.

 

[Halloqueen]

Most of the time, if a Pokémon is going to see some use, whether that be as an active member of a team or for some other function (like using HMs in the older games), I tend to give these Pokémon a nickname. I'm someone who likes to come up with a theme to base a team around and then breed Pokémon to have specific Natures, Abilities, Egg Moves, IVs, etc. and EV train them so that they can potentially be competitively viable. That said, since you can't really do all that in the initial playthrough of a new generation, that whole breeding aspect is in subsequent playthroughs.

When doing an initial playthrough of a new generation, I typically do still nickname active team members too. I was kind of lax with it in my Scarlet playthrough; only some of my team members actually got nicknames. But yeah, for the most part, I do give nicknames. I try to keep my teams varied from one another, try to use new things, but there are certainly Pokémon that can make appearances across multiple different teams since they fit whatever theme I'm going for. Nicknaming makes it feel more like they're their own individuals even if they share a species with something I've used before.

 

[Muna]

I name the Pokémon I use in my team. I think it creates a bond and makes me like them more.

 

[LittleMissPanda]

When I was younger I didn't nickname my Pokémon, but as I got older I started to do it. I realized that it adds personal charm to every playthrough, and it's fun. I tend to stick to nicknames that are either puns, references to other games or characters, or food-themed names. I definitely develop a closer bond to my Pokémon as a result. It's a special attachment that transcends the generations. For example, to this day I always nickname any Mareep I use in any game Sherry (a pun on shearing a sheep's wool) and every Shroomish I give the nickname Goomba (that one should be obvious lol) to me, every Oshawott is called Sushi from my first playthrough of White all the way to Legends: Arceus

I still remember playing Pokémon Ruby for the first time. Torchic was my very first Gen III starter because May had one in the anime, so I wanted to use one, too. I was a silly kid who was obsessed with the anime lol it's actually why I chose Piplup as my Gen IV starter when I first played Diamond, since Dawn had chosen Piplup to be her partner. But really, Turtwig is my favorite Gen IV starter. I began choosing my starters based on my own personal tastes and preferences.

Neither of them had nicknames, so they were just called TORCHIC and PIPLUP, since the older games used ALL CAPS for every POKeMON.

 

[Midoriya]

I've always given nicknames to my Pokemon, ever since I started back in generation four with Diamond. Still have my level 100 Infernape from that game, whose nickname is GEN.

 

[Clock]

Nope, I keep their default name since I'm too lazy to do so.

 

[Rainbowhorn]

Always, only exception are legendaries, it feels wrong to rename something that's supposed to be a deity (AND an exception to that one is Type Null, he reserves his own name)

 

[Aerith]

I've played since Gen 1, and I didn't start nicknaming my Pokémon until Gen 3. My friend thought it was weird I didn't give them names because they're like pets. That changed my perspective and I've always given them names since. Rarely I go by a theme, usually it's whatever spontaneous name emerges from my consciousness.

I named my Rayquaza Banana Pie.