Tag: names

Top 10 Most Confusing English Pokémon Name Pronunciations

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Warning: This list may make you feel… /KRAH-bee/.

It may not be evident, but there’s a lot of work that goes into giving a species of Pokémon a name. The name of a Pokémon usually features a play on one or two words which refer to either the real-life basis of the Pokémon or an attribute linked to the Pokémon. This leads to many interesting wordplays, word corruptions, and portmanteaus, such as Exeggcute (execute + egg), Whismur (whisper + murmur), and Serperior (serpent + superior). But with these wordplays that would make any linguist proud comes a whole set of pronunciations that would make any linguist cringe, and the latter is what this article will tackle.

Several Pokémon names have easy pronunciations, due to either a very clear portmanteau (Gogoat = go + goat), an easy-to-follow spelling (Eevee = /ee/ + /vee/), or an easily recognizable word corruption (Wynaut = why not?). Unfortunately, the converse is also true, for there are many confusing, questionable, and at times nonsensical Pokémon name pronunciations. A quick Google search would show you entire threads and conversations dedicated to figuring out whether or not this is a long or short I, or whether that C is pronounced like a K or an S.

This article aims to list the 10 English Pokémon names that always find themselves at the end of the question, “How do you pronounce _________?” The most canon sources for the “proper” pronunciations found in this article come from the Pokédex 3D Pro app (for the first five generations) and the announcer of Pokémon Battle Revolution (for the first four generations), with the sixth-generation Pokémon only having the English anime dub as a reference. But those three sources don’t always agree with each other, which shows that maybe the different translators are as confused as we are.

So don’t feel bad if you fall victim to the ten mispronunciations you’ll find here. Chances are, you’re part of a very, very large group.
Continue reading “Top 10 Most Confusing English Pokémon Name Pronunciations”

Nicknames for Spinarak and Ariados!

As usual, following the Pokémon Analysis article we wrote for the Spinarak line, we’re asking for your nicknames for these spiders! The Name Rater wants to hear them as well. Poor guy was found in the Poké Mart trying to come up with alternate names for every single product again. He even came up with names for the policemen called to escort him back home.

Leave a comment suggesting a name or few for Spinarak and Ariados, and perhaps why you came up with those names as well. Maybe other readers will like your suggestions and use them in their games! You have at least a week to do so before the Name Rater casts his judgement, so get them in while you can!
And now you can read the rates here! But you can still submit if you’d like.