omg i have the same problem. Most of the time my Pokémon names are random and basically what i was feeling at the moment. I once named a chimchar Karma because i laughed at my friend for spilling her drink and a minute later i spilled my cereal while choosing chimchar
I have come to the nicknaming theme of European/American human naming for my Pokémon, like Ricky for Charizard, Lucy for Dragonite, and Brandon for Pikachu. My brother hates me for it, but I don't care. The only true exceptions is Ember the Typholsion and Brooke the Primarina. You can see why. Also, I named my Torterra Jason after a keyboardist who died now two years ago named Jason Gaviati, better known as Gavi for short.
I do have a new name for Dehlmise and Water types with Ghost or Dark typing. Really, it could also work for Pokémon that just live deep under water. It's Mikage, which can mean ocean shadow.
I get my Pokémon nicknames from a lot of things, but mostly I use names referencing things they resemble or are based off of. For example, my Absol from OmegaRuby (which is now in Sun and will eventually be moved to UltraSun) is named Bae Ze, after a creature from Chinese mythology that Absol is based off of.
Ok this is what I typically nickname these Pokémon (I usually give all my Pokémon the same nickname each time I use them unless I'm evolving them into something different.) I only give a few Pokémon actual human like names, usually if they're the favorite Pokémon of one of my friends or have some sort of relation to a celebrity Greninja: Uzachi (fusion of the last names of Naruto and Sasuke from Naruto.) If you don't wanna do anything like that I recommend Sengoku, which is the name of the period ninja began to appear in Japan Dragalge: Psuedoweed (combination of Pseudo and Seaweed, cause his Pokédex states he's the Mock Kelp Pokémon.) If you don't wanna get people confusing with Sudowoodo I'd say use Killkelp, being a Poison-Type based on kelp. Zoroark: Carbonado, named after the famous illusionist. Couldn't really think of anything else other than like Optics or something eye-related. Decidueye: Artemis, the goddess of the hunt and of the moon allowing you to keep that ninja theme (if Decidueye isn't female I'd say Artemas) If you go with Infernape I'd say do Hungar, it's a corruption of the name of the martial arts style Firebending is based on in ATLA. Hope this helps
I just choose the first name that pops into my head when I name my Pokémon. On my current Ruby game I have Kippy the Marshtomp, Ryder the Wingull, Marianne the Sursquit, and Magi and Magikarp. My old naming strategy was to name my pokémon after different gods from different mythologies. Once, when my sister played through pokémon, she caught every pokémon and then named each of them after a Digimon.
I give my mons funny names: Sigilyph: Mega Unown Chansey: Senpai-Chan Staraptor: Edgy Birb Toxapex: STALLingrad
I almost never nickname Pokémon in my games just because I'm a default kind of guy. When writing a story with Pokémon I do often give nicknames. These nicknames usually follow my normal naming convention, throw random letters at the screen until something works. One of the best names I've gotten from this process is Tenow. I usually dislike using names that already exist and try to find something unique to the Pokémon or story I have them in.
