Pokemon has been a hit pretty much worldwide with old and new games alike now available in nine languages. The original Pokemon TCG is available in 11 languages (bring back Dutch, Russian and Polish!) and the anime is available in more than 25 languages. Suffice it to say, the Pokemon company is doing its best to appeal to a wider and wider audience. In fact, Thai and Indonesian cards were recently added to TCG and, in some of these translations, the names of the Pokemon themselves have been translated, too.
Some languages, such as Spanish and Italian, use English names while others, such as Thai, use names very close to the original Japanese. French, German, Korean, and Chinese, on the other hand, all have their own names for the monsters - many of which are arguably better than what English-speaking fans received. Naturally, Japanese has a ton of good ones, too.
10 Seemops/Spheal
Already a knuckle-bitingly cute Pokemon, Spheal is made even more adorable by its German name which sticks it with attributes of man’s best friend. Now, let’s not mess around here, Spheal is a great name; it tells a trainer exactly what they’re getting before it even appears.
But Seemops? This is a German portmanteau of Seehund (seal) + Mops (pug). That’s right, Seemops is named after everybody’s favorite wheezy breed of dog. Oh no…now everyone will want one (slight sarcasm here). Thankfully, Spheal are a little less expensive than the popular dog breed.
9 루브도/Smeargle
Occasionally, Pokemon will throw a name at fans that refer to something that exists in our reality instead of the Pokemon world. For example, Hitmonchan and Hitmonlee are named after Jackie Chan and Bruce Lee - common knowledge, right? What’s interesting is that this reference to martial artists carries through most other languages, too!
But this neat trait is not limited solely to our favorite fighting duo. No, the games and anime are full of references to our world. The best, though? Smeargle, a.k.a. 루브도, which is written in the Latin alphabet as “lubeudo”. “Lubeudo” is very similar to the way that the French art museum “Musée du Louvre” is pronounced (and spelled) in Korean - “lubeulu”. This means that our artistic friend is named after one of the most important art museums in the world!
8 Crapustule/Seismitoad
Let’s keep this one short and to-the-point. Crapustule. Originating from the French “crapaud” meaning “toad” and English “pustule” meaning, well, pustule, we have this rather unfortunate name. Crapustule isn’t the only Pokemon with a perfectly innocent name in their native languages that would get a cheap laugh out of an English speaker.
This spot could have been taken by any number of Pokemon, but are they really the best names or just a little funny? That said, other contenders could be the Japanese Boober (Magmar), Vulgina (Mandibuzz), and Pii (Cleffa), as well as the German Fukano (Growlithe). All of these are mentioned semi-often online whenever interesting Pokemon names are brought up.
7 eF-eM/Noibat
Noibat is pretty neat. It’s a flying boombox that can produce any wavelength of sound, use sonar to detect ripe fruit (?????), and its name in German is the only Pokemon name to start with a lowercase letter.
Noibat’s name is stylized as “eF-eM” where the “eF” here refers to “F” for “frequency” and the “eM” to “M” for “modulation”. Have you caught onto the fact that this references FM radio? Noivern, its evolution, also has an interesting German name as it is named UHaFnir. The UHF here refers to ultra-high-frequency radio waves. It’s a mystery as to why Nintendo didn’t go the Elgyem (LGM) way or vice-versa, but this definitely makes for a unique set of names.
6 デンリュウ/Ampharos
Ampharos, a.k.a. Denryū in Japanese, is a 4-ft tall bipedal electric sheep. So, why then is it named Denryū? The “den” here can be translated as electricity, but what of the “ryū”? That’s a little more difficult. There’s a couple of ways that this can be read, and, as the Pokemon names in Japanese are written in Katakana (phonetic, so only one reading), the meaning of the parts of this name is up for debate.
Most commonly accepted is that the “ryū” refers to “current” and thus forms “electric current”. This said, “ryū” can also mean “dragon” to form “electric dragon”. Ampharos certainly doesn’t look much like a dragon (perhaps more than it does a sheep). But with the introduction of mega-evolution, we met Mega Ampharos. What’s important about this is not the fantastic hairdo, but its fancy new typing - the “electric dragon” finally became Electric/Dragon!
5 ウッウ/Cramorant
Cramorant definitely has one of the most interesting Japanese names of all. If spelled with the Latin alphabet, we’d have two letters: “Uu”. Cramorant comes from “cram” plus “cormorant”; pretty simple, right? It’s a cormorant crammed full of fish. But how does “Uu” happen?
Firstly, the character for cormorant in Japanese can be read “u”. In addition, “uu”, “u”, and “uuu” can all be read as sound effects for displeasure, struggle, or repulsion. That is what one can imagine Cramorant is feeling as it hacks up sealife. This makes for one of the most interesting names in the series, and it’s fun to say. The pronunciation is similar to “ooh ooh”.
4 Ohmassacre/Eelektross
As if a lamprey with zero weaknesses and an almost 7-ft height isn’t terrifying enough, Nintendo calls it “Ohmassacre” in French. While a little easier to work out (ohm + massacre), it rolls off the tongue a lot more nicely than “Eelektross”. Interestingly, this is the only name for it that references anything close to massacre; the other names seem to focus on it being an eel. Grand.
The only other reference to its apparent destructive power is a Pokedex entry that says it attacks prey on land and drags them underwater. Pretty unpleasant, but it doesn’t quite reach the grisliness of the name “Ohmassacre”. This incredible name is what turns a pretty cool Pokemon into one of Unova’s best. Thanks, France.
3 Excelangue/Schlurp/Lickitung
It was too difficult because they’re both so fantastic. French comes in with “Excelangue” and German with “Schlurp”. The reason why “Schlurp” rocks is pretty self-explanatory, whereas, in the already-excellent (sorry) French name, there is hidden the word “langue”, meaning “tongue”.
“Excelangue” is particularly fun to say and particularly difficult to say without a French accent. “Schlurp”, however, is perfect in the way that, even if one had never seen it, they could draw a pretty close resemblance to Lickitung just based on the name.
2 ポットデス/Polteageist
The second particularly violent-sounding name we have is the Japanese name for Sinistea. When written in the Latin alphabet, it reads as “Pottodesu”. “Pottodesu” is another name that can vary in meaning depending on which Japanese alphabet is used. Approaching it at face-value with how it is written on the cards and other merchandise, we have “Pot Death”. That’s intensely spooky and really drives home the fact that Ghost-type Pokemon were all, at one point, dead.
On the cheerier side, “Pottodesu” can also be read as a pun! If one were to write ‘ポットデス’ as ‘ポットです’, which has the same pronunciation, its name becomes “It is a pot” - which is true! Full marks to whoever came up with this one.
1 Sorbébé/Vanillite
Sad, isn’t it? What could have been…Instead, we get Vanillite. Fine, it’s Vanilla ice cream and it’s small, okay. But Sorbébé. Sorbébé. That is a name that could have calmed the fires of debate over this controversial Pokemon. After all, some fans have noted that it seems as if Pokemon is running out of ideas lately.
Objectmon is pretty phoned in guys. But it doesn’t matter because this thing is called Sorbébé. 10/10. If there is a perfect Pokemon name then this is it. It’s sweet, simple, and it’s funny. Sorbet + bébé; that’s all you need.
NEXT: Pokemon Developer Game Freak Changes Name To “Game Maniac” In China
