Pokemon Nicknames?

I usually named my starter after myself, generally because I play most times as a girl. I use real names almost always, and use the first letter of the Pokémon, so like a pachirisu named patrick.
Occasionally I name it after the artist of the song that's on,
I had one game where I named them all colors.
Etc.

 

My first EVER Pokémon was a megamium and i called him Grassy, and Grassy is forever my Partner Pokémon.

 

Strangely enough, I named my Pikachu Sparks (well, technically it was Sparks!!!) as well. I guess that name wasn't as unique as my 8 year old mind perceived it to be. With my nicknaming of Pokémon though, the best one I ever came up with was for my first Pokémon, Turtwig. I ended up naming him Powerplant, which ended up being rather fitting seeing what it finally evolved into. After that, the only other nickname I can think of mentioning is of my Vaporeon who I called Rayne (Which I still find quite clever really)

 

I nickname my Pokémon based on their final evolution's name. So for example, Alakazam would be Alexandra. I don't nickname my Pokémon very often tho. I think I only did that for three or four playthroughs.

 

I never nicknamed my Pokémon back then actually.

Though truthfully if I got frustrated by it somehow I'd name it "Stupid" sooo.

 

Back in the day I mostly did the popular Greek/Norse/Egyptian gods theming. Mightyena nicknamed Cerberus, Blaziken named Horus, etc.

I did nickname a Bagon as Bacon, and traded him away to someone who didn't notice the changed letter. Bacon evolved, but his name stayed the same. Mwahahaha.

These days, I get nicknames from all over the place, and they all usually have a connection to something I like. Music, folklore, other videogames I like. Some favorites:

Spoiler

Folklore
Ariados - Anansi (African trickster figure, very loosely could be called the African Loki, and he prefers to take the form of a spider.)
Alakazam - Baphomet (Goat-headed figure with some relation to Satan, varying depending on who you ask. Zam's head does look like a goat head, huh? Shaped like an inverted pentagram too...)

Vidya
Gardevoir - Celes (Final Fantasy 3 or 6, knight/mage character with a signature armor of a white silk dress.)
Toxicroak - Don Gero (Zelda series, the conductor of the froggy chorus. His name can be translated to English as "Lord Ribbit".)

Literature
Roserade - Prospero (Poe's "Masque of the Red Death", as Roserade appears to be wearing a masquerade type of mask.)
Mawile - Dante (Part reference to Aligheri, part single-entendre to Dental and Mawile's crazy mouth/horns.)
Omastar - Cthulhu (Praise Helix!)

Culture
Pangoro - Wudang (The Wudang (or Wutang) mountains in China, as well as the martial arts forms cultivated there. Appropriate for a fighting panda.)
Grumpig - Kamehameha (Named for the King of Hawai'i, and half of the toppings needed for a delicious Hawaiian Pizza! Just need a pineapplemon now.)

I have at least one clever name for almost every evolutionary line (but no legendaries), but these are just my favorites that I'm quickly reminded of and can be explained in fewer than 100 words (don't even get me started on my Luxray named Hashmal)

 

When I was younger I really loved giving my Pokémon nicknames, it made me feel like they were my special babies.
And I still do to be honest


...


*thinks about gen 1 zapdos' nickname*
*Shocky*
*deep sigh*

 

When I was little, I didn't nickname some Pokémon at first because I wanted to learn their names. qAq For some reason, I felt it was wrong of me to name my very first starter (who was shockingly female!) Piplup. Yet looking back on it now even though 7 year old me didn't know what she was doing, every Empoleon I've trained to date can't match my first starter. So I renamed her "Voran Reine" and transferred her. (Voran Reine roughly translates to First Queen) As for the other Pokémon I DID nickname when I was little, it was usually cute generic things like "Floofle" or "Puffy" or sometimes something I thought was cooler like "Voltage" or "Tsunami". As I've gotten older I've changed to naming my Pokémon after anime characters or some German words. I've gotten a bit more creative but I still grow unhappy with some names I choose! haha

 

I don't quite remember if I give nicknames to my Pokémon back then, but one of the oldest nicknames that I could remember was a Geodude in Pokémon Emerald. That Pokémon happens to be female, so I decided to give it the name Geomint.