Errors with our Name Origins (Etymology) page

Question

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!

Please post ANSWERS instead of comments or else your post will be hidden, thanks.

Answer 1

Appletun's name comes from Appleton, a toponym that means an orchard or place where apples grow, which makes since because Appletun is a apple pie. Appletun's name may also come from ton (referencing its bulk). It may also be a play on apple turnover or under, an apple dish.

Toxel's name also comes from toddle, which means a young child's unsteady walk. It may also come from little.

Applin's name also comes from tannin, a biblical serpentine dragon, which is why it is Grass-Dragon.

Eldegoss's name originates from edelweiss, a flower with a furry coat, which makes since because Eldegoss is covered in a furry coat.

Regidrago's name possibly comes from draco (dragon in Latin).

Sobble's name also comes from dribble, a word that means a thin stream of liquid; a trickle, which makes since because Sobble is the water starter.

Rookidee's name also comes from a species of bird called rooks. Rookidee's name possibly comes from kid.

Corvisquire's name also comes from the bird family corvidae, which makes since because Corvisquire is a bird. That also applies to Corviknight.

Wooloo's name comes from loom, a type of machine used to weave cloth, which makes since because cloth can be gotten from sheep.

Yamper's name also comes from ampere, the SI base unit of electrical current, which makes since because Yamper is an electric doggo.

Sillicobra's name also comes from silt, a granular material of a size between sand and clay, whose mineral origin is quartz and feldspar, which makes since because Sillicobra is a ground snake.

Arrokuda's name also comes from arowana, which are freshwater bony fish of the family osteoglossidae.

Sizzlepede's name possibly also comes from millipede, a type of bug.

Kartana's name may come from card, since cards are made out of paper. It may also come from curtana, a British ceremonial sword used at the coronations for kings and queens. It definitely comes from Kartana, which is Sanskrit for cutting.

Bronzong's name also comes from gong, a musical instrument, and bianzhong, an ancient Chinese musical instrument consisting of bells.

Comments

"makes sense" not "makes since". My apologies if this sounds rude.

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What do you mean?(Edit) Oh I see it.

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Applin is a wyrm in an apple, as opposed to a worm in an apple.

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That's why it's a dragon type.

Answer 2

The "Dura" in Duraludon might also come from durable, because according to the Pokedex entries, Duraludon is made of very strong metal.

Raikou is probably from "Raijou".
Source

Scorbunny might also be from "score".

Comments

I think that this would be redundant. Duralumin comes from a combination of durable and aluminum.

Answer 3

Rayquaza

The entry for Rayquaza refers to a quasar as a distant star; this is incorrect. Quasars are quasi-stellar objects, and are actually the result of huge supermassive black holes at the center of galaxies. The light from the quasars is a result of a huge amount of matter in the accretion disk of these black holes.

Comments

I know my astronomy and whatever you wrote about quasars is half correct. Firstly, quasars are not quasi-stellar “objects”. They’re quasi-stellar radio sources, named as such because they were discovered through their strong radio emissions, but they’re visible in bright light, as you may know, too. They’re a part of the wide varieties of AGN, or active galactic nuclei. They’re not a “result” of the black holes, they’re “powered” by a supermassive black hole in the AGN’s core, which is surrounded by a monstrous accretion disk funnelling material in at a prodigious rate. The brightest quasars need to gobble up an equivalent of a thousand suns each year to keep the lights on. Whenever the AGN runs out of fuel which it needs to sustain the lights and emissions, they central region quietens down. Currently, the scientists are exploring the correlation between a galaxy and the mass of its central black hole. In particular, they are studying how the black hole’s role in gobbling up material eventually robs a galaxy of its chance to make new batches of stars. The central engine’s prodigious appetite seems to be causing its own eventual downfall as it runs out of fuel to keep accreting mass.

The reason which I believe the page mentions quasars as a “distant star” is because of quasar’s initial similarity to stars (emphasis on initial). They appeared bright, almost starlike, and their brightness would sometimes vary over a few days. However, it was hard to tell what they were associated with, and they were almost always very, very far away. eventually, Dutch astronomer Maarten Schmidt* (1929-*) looked at emissions lines from a quasar called 3C 273*. He pointed out that these lines were coming from energized hydrogen atoms and were highly redshifted (i.e., the spectra were shifted very far toward the red end of the spectrum). 3C 273 was not only very bright, but also very far away. Eventually, people realised that quasars are powered by extremely massive black holes consuming huge amounts of materials.
(*- Please note that I haven't re-checked the date(s) and the name(s). They might be incorrect, but I'm pretty sure I do remember them correctly)

So I think that it’s particularly common among the people who’re not familiar with astronomy to think of quasars as bright and/or distant stars. A mistake which needs to be rectified.

That’s all from me. Cheers.

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If I could upvote a comment I would.

Answer 4

I think Milotic is partially based on the word melodic. I know this might sound wrong, but Pokemon has never made a Pokemon a homophone of a word and not connect it somehow. Obviously, Milotic is not known to be a singing Pokemon, but it has had Disarming Voice as a level up move since ORAS. Milotic's design is obviously part mermaid and mermaids are famous for their perfect voices.

Idk just a thought

Comments

This is a big stretch. Only supporting evidence is the name and Disarming Voice, and there are multiple other Pokemon that can learn it despite having no connection to sound.

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But is there another Pokemon that is a homophone of a word and isn't based on it in some way?

Answer 5

Stakataka is Stack and Attack/Attacker.

Answer 6

Isn’t Basculin/Basculegion’s names also puns off the Spanish word for scales-bascúles? It makes total sense for fish Pokémon like these, right?

Also, skunks are not rodents, they’re rodent-like, and skunks belong in the family Mephitidae.

Tangela’s name sounds a bit like “tangle of”.

I think the “dos” part of Gyarados’ name likely refers to the fact that it’s the second and last stage in its family.

Answer 7

Arboliva's name most likely comes from the fact that "tree" in Spanish is "árbol" and not from the word "arboretum".

Answer 8

Magnemite's name is close enough to magnetite for me to bring it up here, which is a type of iron ore that is one of the most magnetic naturally occurring minerals in the world.

Answer 9

For Volcanion, im pretty sure the part you think is lion is referring to the word canyon, since canyon is referring to a word that could fit it and i dont see any resemblance to a lion at all

Comments

> Volcanion may be a combination of volcano and *lion*. It may also include canyon, referring to its ability to break large landmasses. "Canion" may also be a corruption of cannon.

https://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Volcanion_(Pok%C3%A9mon)#Name_origin

Answer 10

I believe Celebi is also derived from ‘celery’, based on the Grass-typing as well as the listed celestial.

Comments

I think that's a coincidence. It much more closely resembles a bulb than celery. Not sure they'd deliberately design a vegetable fairy either.

Answer 11

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).

Answer 12

The "puff" in Slurpuff should not be the morpheme : "a small blast (of powder etc.)" as currently stated in the entry. The puff here refers to the dessert, makes more sense considering the design of the pokemon which is based on some cake-like confectionery.

Cross referencing with it's Japanese name ペロリーム （ペロペロLicking Noises + クリーム Cream）might bring more clarity.

French name "Cupcanaille" and German "Sabbaione" both referenced a type of sweet confectionery as well. (cupcake and Zabaione respectively)

Answer 13

Skrelp is probably "scrawny+kelp" or "scrap+kelp", I definitely like the latter much better as there are stronger arguments for it.

Japanese Name "クズモー" contains reference to "scraps/morsels of seaweed" : 藻屑 (もくず)
Chinese Name 拉拉藻 is 垃圾（trash/debris）+ 藻 (algae)/海藻（seaweed）

Answer 14

Wishiwashi is based on "wishy-washy", but the reason as to why it is stylised as Wishiwashi is another different reason. It is a direct succession from the Japanese name ヨワシ (Yowashi), which contains the word 鰯 (iwashi) which means sardines, thus the "-washi".

Also to any lost soul who even bothers to read these, I would really like to draw attention to Vikavolt.

I don't really buy the current etymology analysis of Vice + Volt, we probably all don't pronounce "Vika" similar to "Vice", not to mention that it doesn't fit the design of the Pokemon. All other names of this Pokemon in other available languages all contain a morpheme relating to a cannon: クワガノン Kuwaganon (Japanese) / Lucanon (French) / Donarion (German)/ 锹农炮虫“Stag Beetle + Cannon” (Chinese).

So what the heck is Vika exactly? Volt part is self-explanatory.

Answer 15

Palossand's current etymology is done right, but it did not account for the additional syllables or morphemes in the name beside the currently identified "palace" and "sand".

It's quite a fun interpretation, but I think the name also was just made to sound like "Pile of Sand".

Answer 16

Polteageist should be put as having pot in its potential name origin

Comments

But it doesn't have "pot" in there... it's "polt" from "poltergeist"

Answer 17

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

Answer 18

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

Answer 19

Just wanted to point this out
A random Reddit post titled “Actual origin of Golduck and Golbat’s names” once said:

But Golduck isn’t gold, that must be a translation error!!” Nope. The prefix “gol” is short for “goliath”, implying “big”. So Golduck is basically Bigduck, and Golbat is basically Bigbat (which makes sense, since Psyduck’s japanese name pretty much translates to little duck)

It kinda makes sense.

Answer 20

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.

Comments

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

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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.

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Going Pixie Lol

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The lake guardians have a theme. *U*xie (you-pixie), *ME*spirit (me-spirit), *AZ*elf (us-elf)