Sunday, January 16, 2011

Thoughts on Gen 5 Pokemon names- Part 2

Written by pikaby


I last stopped at Lilligant (one of my favorites~ cute flower Pokemon for the win). Today I'll cover another set of Gen 5 Pokemon further down the Pokedex.

Basculin- The red and blue generic fish things with lowly stats and annoying as hell. Good name though.
Sandile, Krokorok, Krookodile- Sandile is great, and the evos have fine names, though they bring up memories of King K. Rool a little. Spelling 'crook' with two 'k's is a nice touch.
Darumaka, Darmanitan- Darumaka is directly lifted, Darmanitan sounds like a stick of dynamite, which can only be A Good Thing.
Maractus- Never did care much for this cactus mon, but it's got a cool name that makes perfect sense.
Dwebble, Crustle- Rock lobster gets generic average names. Dwebble is weird. I just don't like the 'Dwe' bit is all.
Scraggy, Scrafty- The Zuruzukin line. Man, these names are just...boring. I don't know what to comment on them.
Sigilyph- The strange floating Psychic bird. Excellent name! 'Sigil' and 'hieroglyph'.
Yamask, Cofagrigus- Yep, the one causing the most controversy right now, the coffin Pokemon. Yamask is easy enough, but somehow its evolved form got the most complicated name in the entire list. 'Coffin' and 'egregious' combined together. I bet the name will be pronounced in at least three different ways again in the anime by people who just can't make up their minds about it. Hey, if they can mess up pronouncing 'Bonsly'... (I'll ignore the 'fag' bit because it's completely ridiculous to talk about)
Tirtouga, Carracosta- Doesn't exactly project images of sea turtles when you say it eh? Not bad names by any means though.
Archen, Archeops- Directly lifted from romanized Japanese name, so no issues. Archeops is a wonderful name. Anyone who points out its similarity to the name Arceus...can you think of anything better then?
Trubbish, Garbodor- Surprisingly good. Better sense than 'Dasutodasu' (even now I don't know what the heck that meant).
Zorua, Zoroark- Confirmed names since Japanese launch so no point talking about them now, though I didn't feel the immediate repulsion with these two at first than with some other names in here.
Minccino, Cinccino- I've said it before and I'll say it again- thank heavens it isn't Chillarmy. That name is horrible. Whoever pointed out that it could be in an army is stupid. Cinccino could use an extra 'h' in its name somewhere though- it's a bit difficult on the tongue.
Gothita, Gothorita, Gothitelle- ...And on the opposite end of the scale, the position of the 'h's in these names make them difficult to pronounce, especially Gothitelle (I keep saying 'Gothithelle'). I don't see how else they could be spelt without messing it up however- they're mostly lifted from the Japanese names.
Solosis, Duosion, Reuniclus- Cute~ My most favorite Gen 5 line, and above average names they get. It might be a little hard to accept 'Reuniclus' after months of squealing 'RANKURUSUUU' but it fits the part. Duosion sounds cool. Solo, duo, reunite. Cell division! Me likey.
Ducklett, Swanna- Swanna is lifted, but Ducklett has gotten a fair number of critiques simply because it's not a friggin duck, it's a cygnet. A baby swan. NOT A DUCK.
Vanillite, Vanillish, Vanilluxe- Good names and reference to ice cream sizes at the suffix part. Vanillite is cute though- it's a shame that it just isn't that good at battling.
Deerling, Sawsbuck- Best name ever. I'm referring to Sawsbuck here (Deerling is unremarkable, but not bad, I guess). After every post complaining about Sawsbuck's name there is always a counter with SAWS- Summer, Autumn, Winter, Spring, reflecting the ability of this line to change its appearance depending on the seasons of the year. Buck is a male deer. Haven't seen TPC being this creative in a while, and I mean it.
Emolga- Could have been directly lifted but for some mysterious reason it wasn't. The name was supposed to be Emonga. I seriously don't know if someone messed up or they did it on purpose, but whatever the case the name and original references are ruined because of that unwelcome 'l'. Does a typo like this go unnoticed past all the employees?
Karrablast, Escavalier- A bit long for a basic stage 'Mon, isn't it? Karrablast. Escavalier is perfect, however. I dunno, maybe I just like the word 'excalibur' or anything similar to it. It sounds cool.
Foongus, Amoongus- The Pokeball-impersonating mushrooms, creatively playing on 'fungus among us'. Very nice.
Frillish, Jellicent- I expected the Tentacool replacement to have at least a more standout name since 'Burungeru' sounded quite powerful (and holds its own ground in battle quite well) but oh well. I could get used to Jellicent, I guess.
Alomomola- 'What the heck happened to the pink sunfish?' was what I thought, until I made a simple search for ocean sunfishes. Scientific name is Mola mola. Well alright, good then. Rolls of the tongue nicely too if you don't get confused with the spelling.
Joltik, Galvantula- Great names for the electric spiders. Pretty unremarkable otherwise.
Ferroseed, Ferrothorn- 'Ferro' is definitely from 'ferrum', referring to its Steel-type, and the rest is standard.
Klink, Klang, Klinklang- I was thinking a lot on how they would replicate the 'add-on' name effect as with Gigigear, and seeing these finally made me laugh. Quite good, if a bit underwhelming that the add-on is gone.
Tynamo, Eelektrik, Eelektross- Eelektrik is weird, but I like the 'tross' suffix just fine.
Elgyem, Beheeyem- Sounds really, really strange if you don't get the alien references here, which is one of the most clever naming next to Sawsbuck. Pronounce Elgyem...'LGM'. Little green men. As for Beheeyem...'BEM' Big eyed monster. Some might argue that it could be BHM, or Big headed monster, but personally I think the 'h' is just there to prevent the three 'e's from getting too close to each other.

Part 3 next! That should wrap up the remaining Pokemon.
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1 comment:

  1. Archeops is not a link to archen but similar to archeopteryx the fossilised dino bird. It looks almost double of it. Also i like your research of alomomola being the paralellogramic word of mola mola

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