This guide will help those of you who are too lazy or can't think up good nicknames.

Dos and Don'ts
DON'T name a unevolved pokemon something that reflects its current form too much. If you name a spearow Speary, for example, the name will make no sense when it becomes a fearow. Of course it wouldnt matter if you don't ever intend to evolve it...but if you want my opinion, names that sound too much like the species name are WAY unoriginal.
DON'T make a team of cuss words and think it's funny. That insults the pokemon.
DO come up with a naming system if you can.
DO use your imagination and be creative.

Ingame examples
Plenty of NPCs have named their pokemon. Here are some examples, both good and bad:

Strawberry
This pidgey's trainer names her pokemon after her favorite foods. This is an example of a naming system, and a cute one as well!

Kenya
A good name. But what a coincidence: this is the name of a country in Africa too...

Pekachu
Not only does this name suck, but it violates the first Don't. Unless of course the old man who owns this pikachu never gets his hands on a Thunder Stone. The name still sucks though.

Things to consider
Type. The name can reflect the type. Here is a list of ideas for your convenience. You can combine these ideas for dual types(a torterra named Sandleaf), or use two in the same name(a staraptor named Skywing). Don't feel too restricted! Airfang is a good name for a garchomp, even though it's a dragon/ground type instead of a dragon/flying type.

Dark: Night, Shade
Dragon: Drake, Fang, Scale
Fire: Blaze, Flame, Burn, Hot
Fighting: Crush, Bruise
Flying: Sky, Air, Wing, Cloud
Grass: Leaf, Vine, Moss
Ground: Mud, Sand, Soil, Earth
Ghost: Spook, Wraith
Ice: Snow, Frost, Cold
Water: Aqua, Rain, Sea
Electric: Zap, Shock, Spark, Jolt
Rock: Stone, Grit
Steel: Iron, Metal
Bug: Buzz, Sting
Poison: Gunk, Venom
Psychic: Mind, Psy
Normal: Too generic of a type...

The real world species it resembles. Picture a growlithe named Rover. Or a glameow named Kitty. You can come up with a pretty cool name by considering both this and the type. Anyone up for a Rainflip the empoleon or a Hotfur the typhlosion? Since penguins have flippers and typhlosion has fur...

The pets you've had that are similar to the pokemon. For the longest time, I'd catch a female poochyena and name her Blacky on every Hoenn playthrough. Because I have a black lab named the same thing. Female, obviously.

Afterword
Do not for one second think that the methods mentioned here are the only ways to come up with good nicknames. I can't list every single possibility, but hopefully my guide has inspired you. Naming makes every pokemon special, so get out there and create the best nicknames ever!

fun read

I've never gotten into nicknaming pokemon after a decade of playing, but plenty of talk about it has had me thinkin

So I'm assuming that if you don't ever intend on evolving an unevolved pokemon then the "DON'T name a unevolved pokemon something that reflects its current form too much." becomes a DO then?...but no, seriously, nice guide...people who see this who don't nickname their pokemon might obtain the habit to do so afterwards...

I just name all my Pokemon Japanese names. It makes it easier, but I usually don't name them the their intended japanese names. Like for example: Blastoise is Kamekkusu, I named him Mizugame [Mee-zoo-gah-meh]. Sometimes, when I'm too lazy too think of a name for Pokemon I don't care about, like Zubat, I just name them a katakan version of what they are, in zubat's case 'Batto.' And sometimes, even with Pokemon I like I'm really lazy, so I juat look up their original name on the Psydex and name it that.

I dont know why anyone would intend to keep it unevolved forever...if you want it to learn a certain move first, you can let it evolve after it does. But I'll clarify. *edits*

I heard a story about somebody who got a magikarp to level 100. How pointless is that?

I don't get the Magikarp thing either but I like to sometimes keep a pokemon at a certain unevolved stage due to liking it better then it's evolved form though this is for ingame exclusively I still do it oh, for example, I always just use Vigoroth instead of Slaking...always, I rest my case...

Oh yeah. I forgot about slaking...I cant think of any way the Truant ability would actually be useful. That's why I never catch slakoths. It's a shame that it starts with a useless ability, gets an okay one, then gets the useless one back. There are better normal types in Hoenn: linoone and delcatty. Sure they arent the best normal types of all time, but theyre better than slaking. I dont even bother with the slakoth line...

Tbh, me neither as I tend to aim more towards Normal/Flying types now rather then just plain Normal Types anyway...

But to be on Topic, I like to use japanese nicknames for my pokemon that aren't their japanese names or names for my starters that go well with my trainer's name like Luna in my Soul Silver file has a starter Meganuim now named, Lunar 1st which was given to it when Luna first got it as a Chikorita...for the example of the first, Luna has a Ninetales named Hoshisuka (sorry, bad example) & a Venomoth that won her her 1st Bug Catching Contest named Morufogami (that's better) with most of the japanese word for moth in it mixed with gami which when added at the end makes most things something god like Shinigami meaning Death God & so on...Morufogami's meant to mean Moth God see?

Moth kami would be Mossugami or Kagami (which also means mirror ). Just letting you know... Morufogami seems more like morphogami. Which would actually still make sense.

Well, I used a online translator to do it so of course it isn't the best method to find japanese terms but hey, learning the language is hell...

True dat. Ha, I'm learning the language now. Its difficult. But yeah, moth was either Ga, or Ka, I can't remember. But in katakana its Mossu just like moss. What translater did you use? I've got a good one that translates better if you want it.

I lke the theme thing, I tend to name Grass Pokemon after Flowers, I use alot of japanese names too. I alo like to use reference to pop culture, Tv shows .celebrities and Anime and sometimes I name them something ironic, just to be funny

Heres my team:
Fluffy- Ampharos
Deadliest(catch)- Krabby
Blades- Scyther
Chicko(chikorita)iim not evolving it ever
Vulpix- havnt got a good name yet, but plan to evolve
Gastly-also haven named having trouble naming , but want to

In heart Gold which ive just begun I chose Totodile- I named him Gatorade

I want all my pokemon to have names, because it personalizes them

That is fantastic & kind of hilarious, AlphaArceus, I like it a lot...


I like this guide but I agree on all points here...


Well, I use the one at Lingvozone.com but apparently as of this post it seems to be not be coming up for me which is weird & hell yeah I want the better one...

don't you think those type specific names are a little unoriginal though?

I used a naming system in HeartGold. I named them all after Organization XIII members.

Shroomz is a nice name