Hi, Charlie! I had a question for you about naming your pokemon. As a tiny tot, I would name every pokemon plush I received. In my mind, I was prepping for my future âmons. However, my older cousins made fun of this habit. They told me that most champions donât name their pokemon, as that makes them âless serious.â I took this to heart.
That changed when I embarked on my journey at 11 years old. My Raichu, Thora, and I have a bond too strong to go unnamed! Many trainers Iâve talked to feel the same about their âmons.
So, Iâd love you to weigh in on this debate! Do you think naming pokemon impacts their bond and/or battle effectiveness?
well, your cousin will have to take that up with the hall of fame registry. if you look at the data, 74% of pokemon recorded in the hall of fame across the regions where this data is collected have a nickname listed on their entry. of the remaining 26%, not all of them are unnicknamed; trainers have the option to ask that their pokemon's nicknames not be included in the registry. most trainers give their pokemon names, whether for fun or sentimentality or just to make things less confusing if their pokemon ever end up in a mirror match.
that being said, there actually has been research done into the correlation between nicknaming a pokemon and the strength of that pokemon's bond with its trainer...and the result was that it didn't have any measurable relationship! what mattered more was the context of the bond between the trainer and the pokemon. a well-trained battle pokemon that spent a lot of time with its trainer would still have a strong bond with them regardless of whether it had been nicknamed, while a research pokemon that was only handled when being studied saw little to no change in its bond with its handlers if it was given a name rather than a research code. how the pokemon was interacted with was the major factor rather than its name.
of course, many people find it easier to connect to a pokemon that has an individual nickname, because that's just how we as humans tend to work! and this is a major reason why many researchers and rehabbers won't give nicknames to the pokemon the work with, because they don't want to introduce bias to their work. it's a lot easier to see a pokemon you're working up close with as "yours" if you nickname it. still, if you don't let the nickname change how you perceive the pokemon- which is hard for most people, in fairness- then the name won't matter.
the most important takeaway from this research is that a lack of nickname doesnt mean a trainer and pokemon don't have a strong bond. many people feel like giving their pokemon a nickname is an important part of the bonding process for them, and that's totally fine! all that matters is that we don't judge a trainer for their pokemon's nicknames or lack thereof, and that instead we focus on how well a trainer takes care of their pokemon.
