Meta-PokéBase Q&A
15 votes
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Here: http://pokemondb.net/etymology
I think we got it 99% correct, so thanks to everyone that helped, I really appreciate it!

The point of this post is just in case there may be a few mistakes. If you happen to notice anything you think is wrong, post an answer here and I will look into it. Answers will be hidden once corrections have been made (or rejected). Thanks to everyone who's contributed so far!

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65 Answers

1 vote

Ariados
I was looking through the dex, and noticed some entries that immediately made me think “oh, its name origin is Ariadne of Greek mythos.” These are the entries that stood out to me:

Silver/SoulSilver, FireRed
A single strand of a special string is endlessly spun out of its rear. The string leads back to its nest.

D/P/P & BD/SP, B/W & B2/W2, Y
It attaches silk to its prey and sets it free. Later, it tracks the silk to the prey and its friends.

The imagery of “leading back to the nest” and “tracking the silk” heavily reminded me of Ariadne. I can’t say with 100% certainty that was the intention of Game Freak when writing dex entries, though.

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Arachnids were named after Arachne, another character from Greek mythology, and I think it's just a coincidence that both of their names sound similar.
0 votes

Celebi probably does not have its etymology in English words, because it's like an exact romanisation of it's Japanese name セレビィ, which I think is a combination of 精霊 (seirei)(Fairy) and 美 (bi)(Beauty).

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0 votes

Armarouge has arma de fogo in it which means firearm in Portuguese
Solgaleo has Galileo Galilei in it or gallium more likely the former
Quaquaval has aqua and caravel, Quaxwell might have swell
Eternatus has tornado in its name referring to the eternamax form
Zacian and Zamazenta have the in their names with a Japanese accent
Cufant has infant in its name
Indeedee might have the name deedee in it which means sorrowful or pleasureful referring to the gender differences and jobs
Grimmsnarl has Grimm in its name which references the Grimm brothers and morgrem might have grim because its evolution does
Obstagoon has goon in its name
Hattrem has brim in its name
Inteleon has Intel in its name not intelligent
Litleo has little in its name

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0 votes

Volbeat’s name origin misspells the word “rhythm” as “rhythym”.

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–1 vote

Uxie's name origin is from the word "yukusaki" (Japanese for future), "Chishiki" (Japanese for knowledge) and pixie. and "You" has nothing to do with that.

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Yukusaki doesn't mean future in Japanese. The Japanese word for future is Mirai, also spelt as 未来. Yukusaki is more of a phase like "where to go", it doesn't totally have a meaning

Yuku, also spelt as iku, is a version of the word "go". Ikimasu is like I will go. -saki is like a time meaning, like "will" or "did", but it doesn't mean future.

Source: i speak japanese
Basically what I'm saying is that makes no sense for Uxie's name origin to be from the term yukusaki because "yuku" would mean "go" in that sense, and then Uxies name origin, if that's correct, is like "Going Pixie", which... i doubt.
Going Pixie Lol
The lake guardians have a theme. *U*xie (you-pixie), *ME*spirit (me-spirit), *AZ*elf (us-elf)