What do you inspire on to name your pokemon?

[ShadowStar]

Danganronpa characters.

I'm not original either. >_>

Anyways, I usually base my nicknames off of a Book / Game / Movie series that I enjoy.

[Okami]

It's a mixed bag for me, sometimes I use odd relationships such as Amelia Earhart flew in planes, birds fly, a chicken is a bird, Blazekin is a fire chicken, she doesn't fly so she's not an Amelia, I name her Emelia.

My brother also helps me, my male Meowstic is named Willem, who shares a name with a Bloodborne character, and it also sounds like a magical name.

I also translate names, I have a Scrafty named Spera and a Spiritomb named Fay, in a mini story I'm writing of my adventures they're sisters and their names translate to Hope and Faith. I also have an Aggron named Silex.

Or I do references such as my Swalot, Conicha, based off the Vocaloid Seven Deadly Sins song of Gluttony.

[SonOfRed]

I name mine after random noises I make when trying to think of names. There's Boople the Empoleon, Spoopaloo the Gengar, and Fleeeep the Medicham.

[Neoraed]

In my case, i pick a theme for each playtrough, for exemple on my first playthrough i used the names of clasic literature authors ( like shakespear, the brothers grimm etc...) on my second i used types of music (grunge, tecno, house etc...).

[Combat]

I should also mention that depending on the personalities I give my Pokemon usually leads to their nicknames. On occasion, I resort to using a translation for a name, but usually, I use cultural references or historical names for my team.

[Aureant]

I don't really like naming my pokèmons. Did it a couple times in the past, it just didn't feel right. They're not exactly the same as RPG characters.

I feel it's nicer to think of them as "my [Arbok]" than "an human name".

Then again, the only pet i ever had was a 14-years old cat which went by the not-name of "il gatto" (which means "the cat" in italian), so that might just be how i deal this sorta stuff.

[YoshiofRedemption]

I'm like most people here and give my Pokemon nicknames based on whatever comes to mind. Some are based on real people (such as Tyler the Noibat-named after the guy who first showed me and got me into Reborn). Some are more or less clever (such as Pinkleberg the West Sea Gastrodon (pink + Dinkleburg from "The Fairly Oddparents")), while others.... I'm not sure where they come from (I have too many examples to choose from. If I have to pick one, let's go with... *picks a piece of paper out of a hat* ...Pickles the Grumpig)

TL;DR: I nickname my Pokemon mostly based on whatever comes to mind, and the names are typically pretty stupid.

[ZEL]

Other times, like my Medicham Kiki and Insurgence Nidoking Cain for example, I name em after the NPCs I associate them with

This, kinda.

Many of my 'mons have more or less random names I made up on top of my head, but the further I got into the game, the more of them ended up being named after characters. So I've got meaningless names like Sarkath (Noctowl), Keera (Staraptor) or Arzac (Arcanine) alongside ones like Lumi (Espeon), Sirius (Houndoom) or Eclipse (Absol).

...And I guess there's that Mamoswine named Earth Shaker.

In my other runs I do use name themes, though. Astra's Pokémon are all named after stars, and when I did the Psychic Mono as Eve, everything got snow/ice-related names.

[Dragon116]

It depends on what game I'm playing. For my nuzlocke (I don't know if I'm ever doing one again), I named them all human names, like Charles the Pidgey. For Showdown, I go for funny names. My NU team is named BIRD?? the Archeops (got that from Helen on Redemption league), Dat Hat Tho the Mismagus, Not a Weezing the Musharna, Horn of the Unicorn the Samurott, Top Keks the Kecleon, and King Tut the Abomasnow. Meanwhile on other teams I have Moe, Larry, and Curly for Trick Room, Trollipede the Scolipede, Golfball the Mega Glaile, Smooth Criminal the Deoxys-S, and Ozzy Osbourne the Absol.

[AuthorReborn]

I often times will give my Pokemon actual names to give them more personality when I'm playing through a game with them. For example, I have Nikola the Manectric, Rachel the Torterra, and so on. Their names will often times be related to their species and type, but not always.

[doombotmecha]

I try to stick with a theme for a given run, but i don't always suceed. In my current Platinum run, my mons are reborn-themed, being named after forum memes i heard here (twerkterra) or in-game npc nicknames (Rawrchomp, Kori the female Ghastly, Taka the staravia [chatot is the worst lategame]). My White 2 mono-steel run has the theme "grandiose": if it doesn't sound like something a paladin would pick, the name doesn't stick. when I don't stick to a theme, I draw on various pop-culture references that stay consistent to a given pokemon; prior to my plat run, my previous 2 garchomps both were named Ryouko, mostly because they share a color scheme and mega garchomp looks similar to spiky senketsu (idk what else to call it). Homestuck is a pretty consistent theme as well.

[Foamy]

I name mine after people or things that they remind me of. Oftentimes, there's some sort of correlation.

Examples:

Sky Williams the Diggersby (because Diggersby tho?)
DIVEKICK the Archeops (because it's DEATH FROM ABOVE)

Widowmaker the Kingdra (because it's running the Sniper set)
OPTIC BLAST the Dusclops (because Cyclops)

[Fury]

I give nicknames to my Pokemon based off of whatever first comes to my mind when I catch them.

For my main file:

The Squad

Infernape (F) - Dixie Kong

Crustle (M) - Limestone

Drapion (M) - Stinger

Gardevoir (F) - Empathy

Gyarados (M) - Leviathan

Krookodile (M) - Tee-Bag

Backups (for future gyms):

Lanturn (M) - Davey

Ludicolo (M) - Fiesta

Mawile (F) - Futakuchi

Metagross - Brainiac

Ninetales (F) - Ethereal

And for my side file:

The Squad (Up to Iolia Valley)

Blaziken (M) - Blitz

Swoobat (F) - Morrigan

Magneton - Magnus

Sharpedo (M) - Nasch

Noivern (M) - Zephyr

Still need to find a sixth Pokemon for the Squad.

[Lost Lore]

Depends on the Pokemon, really. Usually if I'm stumped for a name I'll take inspiration from one of their foreign names, eg. Irrlicht the Gourgeist and Somnium the Musharna. Sometimes they're named after characters, like Madara the Arcanine or, dare I mention, ZEL the Vaporeon. Then there are those that are named after songs, such as Niji the Slowking or Echoes the Noivern. And finally sometimes it's just something I feel suits them.

Incidentally, my main team on my first file is:

Bayou the Swampert (pretty self-explanitory)

Sir Vale the Gardevoir (partially from Sirknight, Gardevoir's japanese name, and valor)

Baron the Lucario (this is a character reference to one of my characters- the quirky owner of a large castle in my Mystery Dungeon-verse)

Incense the Chandelure (burning incense, which is something we do sometimes, and the trailing smoke being comparable to souls, perhaps?)

Cantus the Meowstic (I was on a TWEWY kick when I named him, so he's named after Panthera Cantus)

Echoes the Noivern (named after a song, as mentioned above)

[BreezyPonie]

Usually I'll just give them either regular human names (e.g. Thomas, Robert, Ashley) or ones that don't really make much sense but I thought sounded cool (Sulfur, Tek, Crux). Occasionally, though, I'll have one name that all Pokemon I catch of that species will share just because it's important to me sentimentally (My Samurott is named Mijumaro as a mispronunciation of the Japanese name for Oshawott, which I would call it purposefully to annoy my sister. All Talonflames are named Twitter after my helpful egg-hatching buddy in X/Y.)

The unimportant ones, though, usually just get some stupid nickname that's either a joke or a random name I picked off of pkmn.net. ^-^

[Narckarth]

I have a lot of variety with my Pokemon names but most of my Pokemon are inspired by RWBY-ish weapon names. nicknames that comprise 2 words and general sound like less than creative names for fantasy weapons.

I.E.

Heatran: Smelter Mound

Gardevior: Divine Intervention

Victini: Blaze Bound

Darmanitan: Flaming Wake

Scizor: Blade Flurry

Edited April 6, 2016 by Narckarth

[Foamy]

What worries me is why on earth would you bother to catch a dunsparce, let alone nickname it.

Glare + Serene Grace Headbutt, bro.

Ever been paraflinched to death by a Dunsparce?

It's agony.

[RainbowHugs]

I name my Pokemon off things that seem to fit with them, like the Snivy line I call Snape or Sneaky, because they are sneaky, and because Snape is a pretty slimy person at the start of Harry Potter, ect. So whatever seems to fit, either that or just names of my friends, lol

[Vilvana]

I just name them whatever that comes to my mind....I guess that is a horrible way to name pokemon

[cakeofdoom]

I generally pick a theme for the names of my pokemon like Religious positions, evil dictators and such. If i'm doing a monotype run I usually name the pokemon after a theme that has to do with their type for an example during my poison run i named them after people that use poison like assassin, pest control and executioner.

[dead account]

I just name my pokemon after things, references, memes and characters from stuff without any real theme. I also tend to reuse names for a species I've used before if I can't think of a new one.

[Crow_BlackFeather]

when im thinking of nicknames I try to let names roll of my tongue or just references/character names from anime.

an example about what I 1st said would be if I caught a Lickitung and started saying random letters off the tip of my tongue so it would eventualy make me sound stupid until I say something that sounds like a cool nickname with lickitung I got Mleedin.

[Oth]

Most of the time I go with a theme and just roll with it, whether its references to something, or me just making up the names as I go. Sometimes I just go with my favorite "default/traditional" nicknames though. Recently, for example, I rolled with a First Age/Quenya-inspired naming scheme and ended up with:

Nidoking: Rauka

Blaziken: Hador

Meowstic: Varda

Linoone: Ilkorin

Lanturn: Nessa

Noivern: Amlug

[SkyRunner]

I mostly give them shortened versions of their names, or maybe a pun or a reference to their type.

[Destiny162]

I give them a name that describes me.. either my personality or my style..... or something that motivates me!