Fan Nickname / Pokémon

Given how long it's been running and just how many different entries have been made in the franchise, as well as its incredibly large fandom, it's no surprise that the Pokémon fandom have created quite an extensive list of nicknames for different things in the franchise.

Games In General

• Uber - Used for Pokémon who are Game Breakers in Player Versus Player and are thus banned in the Metagame.
• Legendary - While the term is used in canon, a different definition is used by the fandom to mean the many one chance only Pokémon that appear in the series. While this does include the rare Pokémon with actual legends behind them, fan usage includes Pokémon like Mewtwo and Deoxys, which don't have legends attached to them due to their origins. A good portion of them happen to be described as Uber as well. The term was eventually made official for all such Pokémon except for the ones that originated as event-exclusives, which are instead dubbed "Mythical".
• Shiny - A now official term for the rare, alternate-colored Pokémon, given that, whenever one appears, it briefly sparkles. First appeared in the official strategy guide for Platinum and began being used in-game starting with Pokémon Black and White.
• Hax - Anything that has a low chance of happening yet can be game-changing when it does happen, such as critical hits on regular moves (about 5% chance). Especially when the speaker is on the receiving end.
  • Parahax, Flinchax: Losing a turn due to paralysis or being flinched by the opponent, respectively. A mon built around exploiting both is known as a "paraflinch" user.
• Gen 1 Miss - A reference to a programming oversight in Red, Blue, Yellow, and Stadium where moves have a 1/256 chance (1/65535 in Stadium) of missing regardless of their Accuracy stat.
• Chesty/Chesto Resting - the combination of Rest (which heals you but puts you to sleep) and the Chesto Berry (which wakes you up again).
• Jim Guy/Gai: The guy (or possibly guys, it's not quite clear) who's always at the front of every Gym giving novice trainers advice on the type the Gym uses.
• Not really for a Pokémon, but there's a guy in the Japanese TV show Pokémon Sunday who resembles a certain WWII German chancellor quite a bit. Thus he goes by "Japanese Hitler" in several forums and Youtube comment threads.
• Fans finally got so fed up with Ghetsis/Gichisu/Geechisu/Geechis/Geecis/Geetis's name that they dubbed him Gaycheese.
  • Because of the easily-misheard Ominous Name Chanting in his theme music, "Dennis" (and its logical next step, Dennis the Menace) has become rather popular as well. (Before it was known to belong to Ghetsis, the theme and "DENNIS" were also associated with Genesect - again, the mishearing comes into play.)
• Hax Tower for the Battle Tower in particular, though the name can be extended to the other battle facilities as well. Simply go challenge the Battle Tower/Subway/Frontiers of Johto, Hoenn, Sinnoh, and/or Unova, and the reason for this nickname will be quite apparent.
• NEET Trio for the characters Volkner, Riley, and Steven.
• Genwars: The neverending fights over which generation is best.
• Entrolllink: Entralink in Gen V. It comes from the difficulty of getting a Dream World Pokémon with decent stats out of there, and the fact that RNG abuse is hard with Entralink as well.
• Smogonfags and Karenfags: A 4chan-originated, somewhat derogatory term for the two big camps of competitive battling: Those who congregate at sites like smogon.com and spend a lot of time breeding, and those who prefer to use what they can catch, these being named for the Elite Four member Karen, who says that trainers should use their favorite Pokémon rather than concentrating on strong ones. (though RNG abuse does close the gap somewhat, given that you can catch a flawless Pokémon as easily as you can breed one.)
• Cockfighting Society: a term for Pokémon, used in Awkward Zombie forums.
• TRio-Team Rocket trio
• Pokégirls: Collective nickname for the various female Pokémon Trainers.
• HM slave/HM Mule: Any Pokémon in-game whose only use is learning several HM techniques to help the player get around. Dedicated HM slaves arose from the fact that such moves are both subpar in battle (Surf and Waterfall, and possibly also Strength being the exceptions) and hard to get rid of once learned.
• Volkner, the Gen IV Electric gym leader, has been tagged 'Chibi-Minato' due to his resemblance to the Fourth Hokage.
• Uber noob - Players who insist on using banned Legandaries in unranked wireless matches, and who also often fall prey to matchups against Lethal Joke Characters such as F.E.A.R. Ratata or Swagger Set Klefki.
• VoltTurn - A competitive team/metagame strategy that makes heavy use of the moves U-Turn and Volt Switch in order to hold Type advantage over the opponent while still dealing damage during switches.
• SubSeeding - A strategy that employs both the moves Substitute and Leech Seed.
• SubPunching - A strategy wherein a Pokémon hides behind a Substitute in order to safely use the otherwise Awesome, but Impractical Focus Punch, a very powerful move which always goes last and won't work the user is hit.
• Sneaky Pebbles - Stealth Rock.
• Spinner - A Pokémon whose primary role on a team is to get rid of Stealth Rock, Spikes, Toxic Spikes, and/or Sticky Web using Rapid Spin.
  • ”Spinners” are also used to refer to Trainers who randomly turn to face different directions; dodging Spinners are crucial in avoiding unnecessary fights for speed runs and challenge runs.
• Spin Blocker - A Pokémon, always a Ghost type, whose primary role is to render (the Normal typed) Rapid Spin ineffective and take out the Spinner.
• Paraswag: Paraflinch's riskier cousin, wherein the user employs both Swagger (which raises the target's Attack and makes them attack themselves half the time) and paralysis to infuriate their opponent.
• F.E.A.R.: A set that employs a Focus Sash, Endeavor, and Quick Attack on a level 1 Rattata to take out a much stronger opponent. The alternative name is Fucking Evil Annoying Rodent.
• S.A.B.E.R.: Like F.E.A.R., only using a Sturdy level 1 Aron that uses a Shell Bell in combination with Endeavor to Recover health, making the strategy repeatable.
• Effort Values, Individual Values, and Personality Values: Three sets of numbers assigned to every Pokémon concealed from the player that ultimately determine a Pokémon's visible stats and can vary between members of the same species. The official term for Effort Values is "base stats" (not to be confused with the fan term "base stats" below), which was mentioned sparingly in some official guides prior to Generation VI. Individual Values and Personality Values have never been officially mentioned at all. Pokémon X and Y made base stats visible, allowing that phrase to flourish among the more casual players.
• Base Stats: A set of numbers concealed from the player that also determines a Pokémon's visible stats and are fixed to the Pokémon's species. No official guides have ever made mention of them; hence, to avoid confusion, the more dedicated players continue to refer to these fixed values as Base Stats and the variable ones above as Effort Values.
  • Some well-regarded websites like Serebii.net and Bulbapedia use the term 'Base Stats', though, so it might become ascended any day now.
• Afroman/Afro Guy is the name the fans gave to the gatekeeper NPC who stands outside of Cerulean Cave in the Gen 1 games, due to how the cave and his hair would run together to make it seem as though he had an afro.
• Aslowla: For the region of Alola in general, due to being filled with Mighty Glaciers.
• Ray (Kouta) and Aliey (Koumi) - Elio and Selene in Pokémon Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon due to their different character artwork.
• Sword and Shield are collectively known as "Pokemon Swish", based on the common abbreviation based on the first two letters of each game's name ("SwSh").
• Focus Miss: Focus Blast, a powerful move often used in competitive play for providing crucial Fighting-type coverage. Due to its base 70% accuracy, it quickly gained a reputation for missing at the worst possible moments.
• Stone Miss: Stone Edge, for the same reasons as Focus Blast. It has slightly better accuracy at 80%, which is still shaky enough to be noticeable.
• Four-Moveslot Syndrome - A term used for when a 'Mon is stuck with at least one glaring weakness or poor matchup no matter what moveset it runs, because it needs more than four moves to handle them while also performing its main role.
• A Pokémon with the condition of having good defensive stats offset by low HP is said to have "Shuckle syndrome", named after Shuckle for being one of the most extreme examples of the phenomenon. Conversely, having high HP and weak defenses is known as "Wailord syndrome" or "Guzzlord syndrome".
• Slow Frail Mixed Attacker – A term used for a Pokémon with mixed attacking stats and poor defenses and speed, usually in the context of the gen 3 games. Ones with this stat spread tend to become Low Tier Letdowns, as it essentially means that they don't hit particularly hard on either side, they can't outspeed most foes, and they can't take a hit to save their lives. (Also called "Mixed Attacker, No Speed" (MANS) in order to take advantage of Fun with Acronyms.)
• Mark the Third - Silver's (in)famous introduction of My Name Is ??? in Generation 2 led to more than a few players naming him "???". Due to the natural difficulty in pronouncing a name comprised entirely of punctuation and how many people named him ??? because they didn't realize that this was when they named the rival and though they were actually answering a question, this appeared as a common substitute.

Specific Pokémon

• Legendary Birds - Used in reference to Articuno, Zapdos, and Moltres. Sometimes Lugia and Ho-oh, too.
• Legendary Beasts - Used in reference to Raikou, Entei and Suicune. Once called Legendary Dogs or Legendary Cats, but didn't stick due to arguments on what the Pokémon in question actually resembled, which leads us to an amusing third/fourth nickname for the trio: the Legendary Gerbils. Crown Beasts is another nickname, usually used specifically for the three shiny beasts that were given out in events near the end of Gen IV.
• Tower Duo - Used in reference to Lugia and Ho-oh.
• Onion Fairy - Used in reference to Celebi. Originates from this Tumblr post referring to a scene from Pokémon 4Ever.
• Legendary Golems - Used in reference to Regirock, Registeel, Regice, Regieleki and Regidrago. Regigigas may or may not be included. The group is also known as (The) Regis. Since Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire, the group is now referred as the Legendary Titans. Pokémon Sword and Shield referred them as the Legendary Giants.
• Thanks to TPPR, Pidgeot has come to be known as Bird Jesus across the entire fandom. Similarly, the helix fossil that revives as Omanyte is Lord Helix.
• "Sombrero-wearing-pineapple-duck" a nickname for Ludicolo from a 'Top 10 battles' video.
• Lati@s/Eon Duo - Collective name for Latios and Latias (since the @ looks like both an "a" and an "o").
• Weather Trio - Used in reference to Kyogre, Groudon and Rayquaza.
• Creation/Dimensional/Deity Dragon Trio - Used in reference to Dialga, Palkia, and Giratina.
• Lake Guardians - Used in reference to Uxie, Mesprit, and Azelf.
  • Also used in the anime.
• Lunar Duo - Used in reference to Cresselia and Darkrai.
• Sea Guardians - Used in reference to Phione and Manaphy.
• Tao/Energy Dragon Trio - Used in reference to Reshiram, Zekrom, and Kyurem.
• Three/"Four" Musketeers - Used in reference to Cobalion, Terrakion, Virizion, and Keldeo. The anime now referred them as the Swords of Justice.
• Kami/Genie Trio - Used in reference to Tornadus, Thundurus, and Landorus. Earlier referred to as the Raijin trio; however, this label is erroneous as it only applies to the origins of one of the members - Thundurus. As of the anime, they are now called as the Forces of Nature.
• Aura Trio - Used in reference to Xerneas, Yveltal and Zygarde.
• Beast Killers - Used in reference to Type:Null and Silvally.
• Cosmic/Light/Celestial Trio - Used in reference to Solgaleo, Lunala (and their pre-evolved forms, Cosmog and Cosmoem) and Necrozma.
• Hero Duo - Used in reference to Zacian and Zamazenta.
• Legendary Steeds - Used in reference to Glastrier and Spectrier.
• More fan terms and nicknames can be found here.
• Magikrap – Magikarp, due to being useless before it evolves.
  • Also 'Derpfish', a name also given to Stunfisk as well.
• Skymin - Used in reference to Shaymin's Sky Forme.
• GARchomp - Garchomp, obviously. It's incredibly manly, even if you have a female one.
  • GARados works on the same principle.
• Pikablu - Marill, acquired during speculation and rumor as to the names and appearances of new Pokémon in Gold/Silver.
• Time Pony - Dialga
• Space Penis - Palkia
• MetalGreymon - A derogatory term for Rhyperior, Rhydon's evolution evolved form. Notwithstanding the fact that Rhyperior looks nothing like MetalGreymon at all...
  • More like RhyINFERIOR.
• PokéGod - A nickname jokingly used for Arceus.
  • The shiny Arceus that *would* have been possible with the Azure Flute had it been released (and therefore is only obtainable by hacking) is referred to sometimes as 'God of Urine' by some, because it's entirely yellow.
  • Also used before Diamond/Pearl as a reference to the glitch 'Pokémon' in Red/Blue/Yellow (people tried to pass them off as actual mons once, if this is anything to go by...).
  • Also, God-Pony and God-Llama.
  • Plus, Space Goat.
  • Players of Pokemon Legends Arceus have fun simply calling him "God.". "God kidnapped me, sent me to the past." "God told me I gotta catch them all." "God sent me a text."
• Smugleaf, Wotter, and Pignition/Pignite/Piglit: The fifth-gen starters. Smugleaf in particular is so prominent, it's made it onto Know Your Meme.
  • Emboar: Piglit's evolution. Widely believed to be the official Japanese name due to a misprint on a major fansite. (The real name is Enbuoh, which means something like "fire oink king"; although many Pokémon are named in (more or less) English, in this case, the resemblance is probably a coincidence.)
  • Snivy was another nickname for the Grass starter, which was later confirmed as its official name, as were Pignite (for Tepig's first evolution) and Emboar (for its second).
• Excalibur - A nickname (and Memetic Mutation) given to the Grass-type starter for Black/White due to its resemblance to a certain Jerkass sword.
  • The resemblance is uncanny. Snivy◊, Excalibur◊, Both◊.
• M-block - A nickname of a glitch Pokémon called 'M (2 unpronouncable symbols).
• Decamark - The nickname for a glitch Pokémon whose name is actually defined as ?????????? (ten question marks).
• TrollFreak - Nickname for GameFreak itself, thanks to their questionable mechanic changes and implementations of the games itself.
• Ernie and Bert: Sawk and Throh, a pair of Muppet-like Fighting-type Pokémon introduced in Pokémon Black and White.
• Only King and Only God - Flareon and Entei (respectively) in Japan, mockingly referring to how bad they are on the competitive metagame simply because GameFreak will refuse to give them moves that put their high Physical Attack to good use. So while every other old Fire-type gets new tricks, they Can't Catch Up.
• Pansage, Pansear, Panpour, and their evolutions tend to collectively referred to as the "elemental monkeys", due to their basis on the commonly-associated types of Fire, Water, and Grass.
• Stunfisk is called Derpfish. Even typing in 'derpfish' into a search engine shows it as one of the first results.
• Surfchu: A Pikachu who knows Surf, obtained from the Pokéwalker Yellow Forest course.^note Though you could also get one in Pokémon Yellow by connecting it to Pokémon Stadium
• Flychu: Similar to the above, a Pikachu who knows Fly.
  • That sort of thing is common for many mons. For example, Snorlax with Curse=Curselax. Event Bagon/Shellgon/Salamence with Wish=Wishgon/Wishmence. It happens with abilities too. One example is Breloom with Technician=Techloom.
• Hitmons: A collective name for the three possible Tyrogue evolutions: Hitmontop, Hitmonchan and Hitmonlee.
• Pumbloom: A nickname people jokingly use for Whismur. The name originated in an episode of Game Grumps.
• Blue-Eyes White Dragon and Red-Eyes Black Dragon: Reshiram and Zekrom.
• Kyukrom and Kyushiram, Reshyurem and Zekyurem: Kyurem forms when fused with Zekrom and Reshiram.
• Fat Pink Whore: Metagame nickname for Blissey, due to its effectiveness and frustratingness.
• NewMew/Mewthree/Mewthing/Newtwo/Buutwo: Mega Mewtwo Y, before details about it were released.
• Megazard: For Mega Charizard X/Y.
• Smogonbird, Smogondog, Smogonchicken, Smogonsword, Smogonwashingmachine: Five Pokémon (Talonflame, Mega Lucario, Mega Blaziken, Aegislash and Wash Rotom) that were High-Tier Scrappies during Gen VI and get thoroughly abused online. Others include Smogonsteel and Smogonheal (Skarmory and Blissey).
  • Talonflame now has earned the name Bravest Bird.
  • Pretty much any High-Tier Scrappy or victim of Complacent Gaming Syndrome will quickly earn a "Smogon" title. Dragonite? Smogon Barney. Greninja? Smogon Frog (or Smogfrog), a title that it took from Politoed. Heatran? Smogon Oven (which lends itself to rather tasteless jokes). Lati@s? Smogon Plane (which lends itself to even more tasteless jokes).
• Rape Machine: Mega Metagross has gained this one in short order after the trailer came out for two reasons. First is its proposed stat spread and new ability, Tough Claws, being incredibly broken. With a speed boost to overcome its old problems with speed with offences boosted and then further boosts to contact moves such as Meteor Smash and Zen Headbutt it will be hard to stop. The second is its design that makes it look like its arms have been positioned to hold limbs while its new Metang point does its job.
• Hoopa-H/Hyperspace Hoopa: The new Hoopa form that was revealed when people datamined the demo of Pokemon Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire, named such because of its signature move Hyperspace Fury.
• Amphabulous: Mega Ampharos, a new form of Ampharos for the sixth Generation of games with long flowing hair and generally depicted with Bishie Sparkles all over the place.
• Grasshat: Chespin, the Gen VI grass starter, due to its wearing a hat.
• Firefox: Fennekin, the Gen VI fire starter, which is based on a fennec fox.
• Mega Evolution is often called Mega Digivolution.
• Mega Mom/M-Mommy: Mega Kangaskhan
• Eeveelutions: collective term for the Pokémon that evolve from Eevee, which as of Gen VI totals to eight. Became official starting with Pokémon Ranger: Shadows of Almia.
  • Vappy: Vaporeon.
• Doug Dimmadome: Galarian Weezing, whose tophat-shaped smokestack and sludge mustache gives it a strong resemblance to the infamous owner of the Dimmsdale Dimmadome on The Fairly OddParents!.
• Galarian Ponyta, a unicorn-like Psychic-type Pokémon is known as Twilight Sparkle or Almathea. Similarly, Galarian Rapidash has been referred to as Princess Celestia or Tinkles.
• Longcat: Gigantamax Meowth, whose elongated torso and extended arms make it resemble the Longcat meme.
• (Armored) Kirby/Kirbo: Falinks, who is a platoon of Waddling Head-like creatures, much like the eponymous pink puffball himself.
• James Pond/Bubble '07: Inteleon, due to being a Water-typed Tuxedo and Martini basilisk lizard.
• Highphlosion: Hisuian Typhlosion, when the leaked images of it showed it with an expression that made it look like a stoner.
• Red Dragon Archfiend and Stardust Dragon: Koraidon and Miraidon, due to the both of them having vehicular elements to their design, specifically motorcycles.
• Hundo: In Pokémon GO, a Pokémon with perfect IVs in every stat. Variations include "Shundo" (a shiny hundo) and "Nundo" (a Pokémon with the worst possible IVs in every stat).
• Weed Cat: Sprigatito, a feline Pokemon whose leaf-like facial marking and red eyes inspired countless jokes about marijuana and stoners.
• Pooper: The name given to Paldean Wooper, due to its brown color.
  • Eclair: Clodsire is often compared to a chocolate eclair due to resembling it.
• Mega Weavile: Chien-Pao, a Generation IX minor Legendary, is a Dark/Ice type physical attacker like Weavile. However, it also outclasses Weavile in its niche in virtually every way, including stats, ability, and available movepool, resulting in its nickname.
• Obamasnow: Abomasnow, due to is sounding similar to Barack Obama's name.
• The Alolan form of Sandslash has been associated with Sonic the Hedgehog due to physical similarities. However, once Alolan Sandslash's Ice/Steel typing was revealed, they quickly shifted to calling him Coldsteel (named after an infamously memetic Sonic fan OC).
• Fug: Rayquaza, thanks to a picture◊ of a shiny one captioned with the German type label for Flying (Flug) with the letter L photoshopped out.
• Cocaine Bear: Ursaluna, thanks to its incredibly high damage output that inspires similar levels of terror.
  • Bloodmoon Ursaluna has been called Freddy Fazbear for similar reasons.
• Iron Fraud: Iron Boulder, due to being much more niche in competitive play than initially expected.
• The Chinese fandom has its own memes and fan nicknames:
  • Big Fatty: Dragonite, from an early pirated cartridge that became popular in China.
  • Chosen King: Flareon, since its terrible speed, inability to learn strong Fire attacking moves by level up, and inability to set up in order to take advantage of its Fire typing, makes it the worst of the Eeveelutions, and so gets this nickname ironically.
  • Chosen God: Entei, for the same reason that Flareon gets nicknamed "Chosen King"
  • Dragon Slayer: A post Gen 6 Marill with Huge Power, Belly Drum, and Fairy-typed move of choice that takes advantage of the attack stat.
  • The Fiercest Fish: Magikarp, despite its terrible BST and equally terrible movepool, is a fan favorite to use unevolved either in the post game or multiplayer matches for bragging rights and/or to surprise players not as familiar with the metagame (especially ones that pack their teams full of legendaries in the belief that this makes them invincible)
  • Great Chrysanthemum: The most commonly used fan translation for Meganium before the official translation came out; became memetic in fansubs during Pokemon Diamond and Pearl when a Tropius developed a crush on one of the Nurse Joy's Meganiums (as "Chrysanthemum" is an Unusual Euphemism for a certain poop-producing bodily orifice, so Team Rocket Meowth's line about this unusual relationship elicited many giggles).
  • King Toilet: Regigigas, because it resembles a "smart" toilet covered with buttons. Regirock, Registeel, and Regice may also get this nickname for a similar reason.
  • Mega Caterpie: Rayquaza, because the two share similar body designs and colorings. By this "logic", Mega Rayquaza gets called "Mega Mega Caterpie".
  • Ultraman: The Starmie line, as their core resembles Ultraman's Transformation Trinket.
• Vic Viper: Vikavolt, for its resemblance to the eponymous Space Fighter, primarily due to its large prong-like mandibles.

Anime or Other

• Pokémon: The Series:
  • GodChu - An appropriate name for Ash's Ground-type beating Thunder Armor-using Pikachu.
    • Metagross Killer - Another title given to Ash's Pikachu by fans due to knocking out several Metagross across their travels.
  • A nickname for Ash possessed by the King of Pokelantis is "Dark Ash" or "Yami Satoshi", and treat him as a separate character from the two.
  • The Spanish-speaking fandom seems to affectionately refer to Ash as 'Mostaza' . (It means mustard, probably has to do with his surname being one short letter of being "Ketchup")
  • The nickname for the dark Ash in the 13th movie, as of now, is Zash (or Zatoshi), a pun on the (running) title of the movie.
  • Ashachu/Satochu - Nickname for Ash as a Pikachu. Despite only appearing for less than the time of one episode, he has a huge fanbase.
  • Nugai - The name given to Shinji (Paul in the US dub) due to the fact that his name wasn't given when he was revealed to the fans. Pun on the term "New Guy."
  • Brockblock - The act of a character killing Brock's romantic advances before they can really set sail. Demonstrations regularly provided by Misty, Max, and Croagunk. Pun on "cockblock".
  • Team Ash or Team Twerp - collective names for Ash and his companions.
  • Tobias is unanimously known as Trollbias, due to him coming out of nowhere and beating Ash with his legendaries at the end of the Sinnoh arc.
  • Reimu - This was what Cilan was referred to prior to his name being confirmed as "Dent". It comes from a prerelease rumor that "Reimu" was a male coordinator with a Munna.
  • Clone Balls - Given to Mewtwo's Poke Balls in Mewtwo Strikes Back.
  • League Kicker/Dream Killer - Any trainer who eliminates Ash from a League.
  • Jane - Jessie's mother Miyamoto from Pokémon: The Birth of Mewtwo does not have an official English name. Naming her after Calamity Jane is commonplace in order to keep the Family Theme Naming of the Japanese version.
  • "Double/Quadruple Counter" for Ash's Dusk Lycanroc's finishing move against Gladion's Midnight Lycanroc; A Counter used to counter the Counter used to counter Dusk Lycanroc's attacks.
  • FemTwo - Mewtwo from Pokémon: Genesect and the Legend Awakened, due to having a feminine voice compared to the noticeably masculine voice of the original Mewtwo from the first movie. "Newtwo" is another nickname for the character.
• In Pokémon Adventures, Platinum and White were nicknamed "Lady/Ojo-sama" and "Boss/President/Sha-cho" by fans in Japan. This is also actually applied in the plot.
• Gary Motherfucking Oak - Often used to express frustration originating from dealing with his game counterpart, Blue. (For example, facing Blue as the Final Boss after defeating the Elite Four and using up all your healing potions with no Pokémon Center in sight.)
• Fakémon: Applies to any fan-made Pokémon species.

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