Why I Nickname My Pokémon

This is a bit of a deviation from the competitive-battling focus of this blog, but I feel like this might be brought to me as a question at some point, so I might as well address it now rather than later: "Why do you nickname all of your Pokémon?"

I understand that not everyone does this, either due to not being to come up with names or simply because they want to be able to remember the name of the species their Pokémon is. I've never had either of these problems, since I seemed to subconsciously remember the name of a Pokémon species...and, even if I forgot it, I could simply peer at my Pokémon's summary. I really nickname all of my Pokémon for the same reason that I don't practice true Pokémon eugenics: I'm just a bit of a sentimental fool.

To me, not naming a Pokémon is like having a cat and deciding to name it "Cat." It doesn't make sense to me. I understand that some people call their cats "kitty" because they don't believe that cats can be name-trained (if you start when they're young and always, always use the name, they can be name-trained quite easily; they will come when called as long as you've taught them to trust you and be social, even if only with you). I used to not name legendaries, just because I thought that whatever name I came up with couldn't be as interesting as their own name. I broke this tradition only a couple of years ago, and I've never looked back. Why did I not stop doing it? Naming the legendary helped strengthen my attachment to him/her/them, even more so than if I had kept them in my party for ages after catching them.

Just like with naming animals, I usually give Pokémon human or human-like names. This wasn't always the case in the early days of my playing Pokémon, though that had more to do with my age than anything else. (My first starter, which I had when I was eight years old, was named Leafer; my second, which I gained [and still have] when I was nine, was named Flaren, which helped boost the idea of giving Pokémon more human-like names.) I always named Pokémon; I tended to name everything, mostly due to the fact that my imagination was always supported by my parents. Naturally, my naming Pokémon has grown more sophisticated over the years. I suppose I could list off all of my starter Pokémon's names...I remember them all, and while it's a bit embarrassing for me, it might be interesting to someone out there. I'm going to estimate my age on all of these, though it should be fairly accurate.

- Age 8: Leafer, Torterra (deleted; the one time I deleted a starter)
- Age 9: Flaren, Infernape
- Age 12: Slash, Typhlosion
- Age 13: Lucian, Serperior
- Age 14: Aeron, Emboar
- Age 15: Benvolio, Greninja
- Age 15: Serren, Venusaur

The one major exception to the naming rule was my Typhlosion, and though I initially regretted the name, it grew on me enough that I had no desire to change it.

What makes a name? Well, when I think about the trends in how I name all of my Pokémon-- not just my starters-- these patterns tend to emerge:
- The names are typically two to three syllables long.
- The names tend to be vowel-heavy.
- In the case of some legendaries (notably, my Zekrom from Black 2 and my Yveltal), "y" replaces a vowel or further elongates an existing vowel; "Fayte" being my Zekrom, and "Rebyrth" my Yveltal.
- Pokémon can be named after fictional characters (Benvolio, Atticus, Clavicus, Sortiara, Eddard, Jon, and Morpheus are examples of this).
- Pokémon can have "human" names that are not commonly used.
- Pokémon can be named after historical figures.
- Pokémon can, in rare cases, be named after acquaintances or family members. This has happened only in Pokémon Y: Nico, my Gliscor, named after the first person I battled offline at a small tournament, and Su, my shiny Goodra, partially named after my grandmother (who was in the hospital at the time).

Hopefully, someone out there has enjoyed this; it's more than a bit of a tangent, but hopefully the question won't be posed to me too often, as this post exists.