Linguistic Project: Pokémon Names

Dear fellow members of Smogon,

I wasn't quite sure where exactly I should ask my questions, so I eventually chose The Great Library, hoping you could help me with my issue.

I'm a student at a German university and I decided to write a linguistic term paper about the morphological structure of Pokémon names, meaning how Pokèmon names are created and of what actual words they consist; for example: 'Ivysaur' consists of the two words 'ivy' (plant) and 'saur' (Latin suffix for 'lizard').

Unfortunately, there are not many scientific articles about this issue and I wanted to ask you if you could help me here. The following questions are highly important to me:
  1. Who/what institution invents the (English) Pokémon names?
  2. Is there an official source that can definitely prove the explanations for the Pokémon names (I've already looked on the official websites of Pokémon and Nintendo, but I couldn't find anything.)?
  3. Are there any authors who focused on Pokémon as a linguistic research object and, if so, what are the authors' and the articles' names?

I would be very grateful if you could help me with my research. I can upload my term paper to this website afterwards if you want so.

Best regards and thank you in anticipation

TalkingAboutTheWeather (diehard Pokémon fan for now more than 18 years)
 

TMan87

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Hello and welcome to Smogon!

It's always a pleasure to see fellows trying to combine Pokémon with a linguistic approach.
As for your questions, I'm no expert but here are my guesses:

1) I'd say Nintendo America, which I believe tries to keep both the original sense of the Japanese name and any puns that may lie within it.
2) Not sure about "definitely proving", but websites like Bulbapedia often include a "Name trivia" part which can shed light. I don't know of more precise resources though.
3) I don't think so, but you should try to contact veterans from The Flying Press, maybe someone had an article (admittedly nothing scientific) idea that overlaps what you want to write.

Also tagging esteemed linguist Max. Optimizer for input.
 

DHR-107

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Hi TalkingAboutTheWeather

We moved this over to Orange Islands as it seems to fit in better with what you are looking for. As Dreamox above said, this thread http://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/the-official-name-pronunciation-guide.3474941/ might have some information that is related to what you're looking for.

As for your questions, Tman87 probably gave the most correct statements. Unfortunately gaming in general does not have a lot of people who look into at the depth you are after. I know Bulbapedia has a few tidbits about etymology of Pokemon names (they try and break it down and find where the names come from). They are not an "official" source by any stretch of the imagination but they have a few talented and knowledgeable people within their ranks.

I'm not sure Nintendo or GameFreak have ever released any "Official" etymology/phonology information about Pokemon Names. A huge number of English Pokemon names are corruptions of various forms. They range from the outstandingly obvious "Pineco" (Pine cone) to the excellent Sudowoodo (Psuedo-Wood, the Grass type looking Pokemon that is actually Rock). The anime is probably the closest you will get to the "correct" (although still highly contested) pronunciations of the names.

Interestingly, Deino, Zeilous and Hydreigon have different German names, even though the English names straight up use the German words for one, two and three.

I'd love to read the paper after you're done with it. Other places to look out for related to gaming would be Digimon names, Yu Gi Oh card names and other "monster" related stuff. Not sure if there would be any high end peer reviewed stuff about it however.
 

Max. Optimizer

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Hello and welcome to Smogon!

In case you're wondering why your thread was moved, it's because this kind of thread is rather fit for the Orange Island section, as opposed to The Great Library.
No worries though, it's sometimes hard to know where to start as a new user and there's a solution for everything. No biggie!
Since this thread offers a lot of food for thought and is hence able to spark off interesting discussions and contributions, I didn't want it to go to waste.
I'd like to welcome the opportunity to thank both DHR-107 and Quote for moving this thread to the appropriate sub-forum.

As for your questions:
  1. My best guess would be Nintendo of America as well, since it's safe to assume that they take care of localizing games in general in order to cater for a western target audience. In hindsight I think that Game Freak provides some sort of suggestions or guidelines so that they don't deviate too far from the original themes/concepts.
  2. As my friend TMan87 already rightfully suggested: Bulbapedia's Pokédex pages have sections dedicated to name origins and trivia for each Pokémon. I picked the one for Bulbasaur as illustrative material.
  3. I don't think we've had an article like that yet, but don't quote me on that. You might however want to jot down the results of your studies and pitch them to the Flying Press Team. Way to get started as a promising new user!
On that note, enjoy your stay on Smogon!
 

TMan87

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I dunno, for example, I always thought that "Fennekin" was "Fennec" + "Kindle", and not "Kin" as it is listed.
Maybe I am the one in the wrong here though.

e: Also "calamari ==> deep-fried squid"
Hmmmm wouldn't that primarily be a species, rather than a dish?
 
After what I've read by now understanding is created by the reader himself/herself. The process is creating a relation between the appearance of the Pokémon and its name, sometimes connected with our information we got from the Pokédex or the TV series.

It is therefore possible that there might be multiple approaches for interpreting the name - as long as it fits to the information we have about the Pokémon.

I'll give you a short abstract from an article I read to show you what I am talking about:
[Ivysaur] is based on a four legged dinosaur or reptilian with a bud of flower on its back although its name is from the word ivy. Ivy is a kind of vine vegetation which climbs and covers the surface of the wall or a tree. Some of its kind is identified poisonous. The word ivy does not represent Ivysaur’s appearance since the plant on its back looks like the bud of a flower. However, ivy can represent a plant, which can indicate its grass type. So, its name has an indirect relation with its appearance. (from Maulana/Himmawati: The Relevance between Word Formation and the Pokémon Name and its Appearance)
So regarding your "kin" or "kindle" problem, both aspects are possible. In addition to this, the meaning of "kindle" reaches from "igniting" to "racial origin" (homonyms). The latter also shows that there is an etymological relation between "kin" and "kindle. I don't know if it was intended by Nintendo to put two very different meanings together in one word and still hit the mark. If this was the case those guys were brilliant bastards.
 
Hi there, to truly undertand the morphology of Pokemon not only I suggest you get the Pokedex 3D Pro* and look into the original japanese names with someone who can actually read japanese, but also look into Nob Ogasawara pokemon translator for gen I-IV (last time I checked the easiest way to contact him was through the something awful forums where he's know as DouglasDinsdale but this was quite a few years ago)

also take into account that some pokemon names are based on languages other than english or japanese, Tirtouga (derived even in pronunciation from "tortuga" turtle in spanish) being the most obvious example


*altough be warned, some of the pronunciantions differ between official sources over time obfuscating their morphology, Arceus being the most famous example
 
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In my paper I mainly focus on the morphology, not phonology, of the English Pokémon names. Sometimes I will need the Japanese original (e.g. Pikachu) to translate the different morphemes (pika- and -chu), but most of the English Pokémon name fragments are comprehensible and easy to look up.

Furthermore, I don't even know how many generations I am going to integrate into my research. It will depend on how fast my working process will be - and that's why I need the scientific articles to make progress ;)
 
I dunno, for example, I always thought that "Fennekin" was "Fennec" + "Kindle", and not "Kin" as it is listed.
Maybe I am the one in the wrong here though.

e: Also "calamari ==> deep-fried squid"
Hmmmm wouldn't that primarily be a species, rather than a dish?
I think I need to look up more than one source. "Deep-fried squid" sounds just wrong.
 
Calamar is squid in spanish

the problem is that all sources on the internet that deal with pokemon names are fan based and thus not really reliable; you need to know the original japanese names and their kanji (well their hiragana, but you still need to know some basic kanji) to understand from where many names are derived, the aforementioned Fennekin is listed as having "kin" as a basis for it's name based on the fact that it's original name in hiragana is フォッコ "Fokko" has ko in it, which itself can be read as 子 in kanji which can be read as kid, so kin=kid

but that's just speculation made by fans, we have no official source on what pokemon names are inspired by
 
Calamar is squid in spanish

the problem is that all sources on the internet that deal with pokemon names are fan based and thus not really reliable; you need to know the original japanese names and their kanji (well their hiragana, but you still need to know some basic kanji) to understand from where many names are derived, the aforementioned Fennekin is listed as having "kin" as a basis for it's name based on the fact that it's original name in hiragana is フォッコ "Fokko" has ko in it, which itself can be read as 子 in kanji which can be read as kid, so kin=kid

but that's just speculation made by fans, we have no official source on what pokemon names are inspired by
The priority is not on the Japanese origin but on the morphological structure of the English Pokémon names. Even if it helps to derive the meaning it's not relevant. I know that because even in comparison between the English and German names there is sometimes no connection like in

Ibitak (Ger.) - Ibis (waldrapp) + atta(c)k
Fearow (Engl.) - fear + sparrow

The only connection here is that both waldrapps and sparrows are birds - but they do not even look alike.
 

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