Nicknames?

[puggsoy]

I was just wondering what you guys think about giving nicknames to your Pokemon (in the games, obviously). Personally I never give my Pokemon nicknames, I've never liked it for some reason (probably since Ash never does it ), but it also lets me easily recall which species I've caught.
The only time I would do so would be if I required 2 Pokemon of the same species (for breeding or whatever), then I would be able to tell them apart at a glance, but I haven't come up to such a point yet.

What I find kind of annoying though is that traded Pokemon retain their nicknames. A week or two ago in Pokemon Black I got a Red Basculin from that guy in Driftveil City, which he'd named Redeye. But then again, I might get a Blue Basculin in the future, so I'd want one of the two to be nicknamed anyway.

[~Axis~]

Even though I rarely play pokemon games, I've played some of the old ones. I only give my pokemon nicknames in one of the following situations:
1. If I have 2 of the same species and if I'm breeding them.
2. If it's my favorite pokemon or if I frequently use it in battle. If so, I don't evolve that pokemon if any chance comes by.

[NICKtendo DS]

I only nickname Pokemon I am keeping. My beloved Lv. 100 Pelipper bears the name Davy Jones with pride.

[water dog]

I never nick named my Pokemon, but after I've started doing Nuzlocke runs, I nickname every one I catch. I probably wouldn't outside of a Nuzlocke run though, just because I find most people nicknaming their Pokemon stupid stuff and it makes me feel sorry for that guys Pokemon.

[Tellis]

Now I'm going to follow up that post with my dumb nicknames! ha!

I didn't used to nickname Pokemon outside of Nuzlocke runs because I hated making the nicknames all caps but I was also anal about keeping the Pokemon names ALL CAPS and making them look not-weird compared to other non-nicknamed Pokemon names. But now in Gen V there's no problem with that soooo

My two Serperiors are Versailles and Lady Oscar (because lol Rose of Versailles)
I named Zekrom Taco Bell and Kyurem KFC. Reshiram would be Pizza Hut but I can't catch him.
Solrock is RA,
Mienshao is Remmy,
Scrafty is Mitzurugi (Scraggy's Japanese name is Zuruggu)
My only EV-trained Pokemon, Slowbro, is named Odin.
And my Chandelure is named Candlejack.

And me and my friend are making a 2v2 Doubles Team for the PAX Pokemon League and our pairs are going to be based on good/evil, just/mischevious or creation/destruction pairs. Aside from Odin, Medicham is Polydeuces, Gardevoir is Amaterasu, Girafarig is Kratos, Heracross is Gilgamesh and Mienshao is Brahma. So ye-

[Phantom Killah]

I nickname every single Pokemon I catch. Not nicknaming them feels too impersonal

[Gwen]

My Braviary is called Wargle, the only right name for a Wargle.

[water dog]

I nickname every single Pokemon I catch. Not nicknaming them feels too impersonal

Eurgh, it's the opposite for me. I'd rather them NOT have nicknames. To me, their species name IS the nickname. Is Pikachu impersonal to Ash? Maybe you're different but the "connection" isn't there solely through nickname for me. Nicknaming them just makes me feel stupid, like, "This Pokemon would fucking hate the name I gave it, why the hell should I name it 'KFC'"?

[NICKtendo DS]

KFC would fit Reshiram more than Kyurem IMO.

[Tellis]

Yeah it probably is more fitting, but I wanted the pair to be Pizza Hut and Taco Bell because of this song.

And I always give the Legendaries dumb names because they're always silly and dumb and I never use them anyway.

The whole Ash & Pikachu thing is kind of a weak argument. I mean, Pikachu's the mascot (or got turned into the mascot, I guess), it'd be confusing for him to have multiple names or something like "_____ the Pikachu." And also there's other nicknamed Pokemon in the anime anyway, like Ritchie's Sparky, and plenty of other Pokemon get nicknamed in the manga and stuff.

Not that I always nickname Pokemon, but saying the species names are the nicknames kind of feels like getting a dog and saying "your name is Dog" or something.

But it all comes down to personal preference, anyway, so I don't really care what other people do. They can play the game whatever way they like, doesn't effect my enjoyment of the game.

[Previous]

I'm not sure but I think I started giving my team Pokémon names at some point. Can't remember if I still did that in Soul Silver, though, or what names I gave them. I'd have to check.
I used to not name them for a long time, but after years of playing I thought it might not be so bad. Diamond should have a bunch of named Pokémon, that I am certain of.

Okay, didn't give names on Soul Silver.
Huh, checking Diamond tells me why: I'm terribly at choosing names. Ew.

[water dog]

Yeah it probably is more fitting, but I wanted the pair to be Pizza Hut and Taco Bell because of this song.

And I always give the Legendaries dumb names because they're always silly and dumb and I never use them anyway.

The whole Ash & Pikachu thing is kind of a weak argument. I mean, Pikachu's the mascot (or got turned into the mascot, I guess), it'd be confusing for him to have multiple names or something like "_____ the Pikachu." And also there's other nicknamed Pokemon in the anime anyway, like Ritchie's Sparky, and plenty of other Pokemon get nicknamed in the manga and stuff.

Whether Pikachu is the mascot or not, Ash didn't have to have a nickname for it to be personal. The fact that some people nicknamed their Pokemon in the anime is irrelevant.

P.S. I wasn't attacking you or anyone, just saying why I think nicknaming Pokemon is silly.

[alexmach1]

i should probably stop naming all my pokemon/rivals "my @ss"...

[Vipershark]

I hated how pokemon used to have all pokemon be in all caps so I'd nickname my pokemon the name of their final form, case sensitive.

(ex: in GSC I named my starter totodile "Feraligatr" so that it wouldn't be "TOTODILE"

fortunately, this stopped in gen 5 so i don't have to do it anymore

[Mutsukki]

I did not used to nickname my Pokémons until Gen 5.

It may sound strange, but I think I actually felt closer to them this way, even though my naming sense isn't the best hahahaha. I only nicknamed Pokemon I was going to use too.