Question regarding delpha

[Meruem]

Not sure if this has been asked or mentioned before, but was the naming choice for Delpha a reference in any way to delta forms? When she first explained that it was supposed to be a mix of Delphox and Delta I just thought it was cringe, but later delta forms came to mind and I thought it was much smarter since she was scientifically engineered to be different from a regular delphox. Was this intended or nah?

[Autumn Zephyr]

I doubt that it's a reference to Delta Species specifically (though it is possible, given how varied Rejuvenation's known influences have been so far), though the basic premise is similar.

 

"Delta", as a symbol, is usually used to represent differences, and Delpha herself is notably different from the rest of delphoxkind (in Ability, base stats, movepool, fur color, and -to an extent- evolution method). Nomenclature-wise, it also lets her keep delphox's root in Delphi, which makes sense given that her divination abilities seem to be a bit stronger than normal as well; it also drops the fox portion of the original name, thus alluding to the fact that she was bio-engineered to be a bit closer to humanity than the normal delphoxes. Seems to be a bit more nuanced than Delpha herself gave it credit for to me.

[kithas]

I always assumed it was just. you know, a female Delphox with personality enough to name herself lol

[Autumn Zephyr]

2 hours ago, kithas said:

I always assumed it was just. you know, a female Delphox with personality enough to name herself lol

In this case, it's very likely that the in-universe reasoning for the name and the reasoning from a design perspective are very different; my previous post outlined the latter. In the scene itself, she basically had to come up with the name on the spot (she knew was going to be different, but certainly not that much so), and the situation meant that she didn't have much time to really think about it. Her mind was largely split between being in all of her new form and focusing on the immensely powerful enemy before her, so she probably did just throw two relevant words together in a hurry.

 

The divide between name design and in-universe reasoning is actually present in delphoxes as a whole, though. The species' English name is derived from Delphi, which was the name of a very specific shrine in ancient Greece. It's a reasonable choice for us, players, since we can use that knowledge to extrapolate the fact that delphoxes are closely tied to prophecies; in-universe, however, it makes no sense. The Pokemon World doesn't have Greece (it may have a Greece-like place, but not the nation specifically), yet alone that one particular shrine! And that's not even going into the ambiguity attached to pokemon whose names are derived from real world animals that's just as present in this case. 

 

...I should probably stop analyzing the names of fictional creatures.