416 Beequen (Vespiquen)

BEEQUEN

ビークエン

Pokemon name meaning:

ビー bii – bee (Japanese word from English)

クイーン kuiin – queen (Japanese word from English)

Notes:

An unusual case of a Pokemon name based entirely on English words. Both are used in Japanese, though the katakana and rõmaji of クエン quen clearly refer to the English spelling rather than the Japanese and English pronunciation of クイーン/queen.

Interestingly the English term “queen bee” has not been katakana-ized as an adopted Japanese word. The Japanese term for a queen bee is 女王蜂 jooubachi.

The English name for Beequen – Vespiquen – refers to vespa (Latin for wasp), while following the Japanese name’s use of “quen” for queen. The wasp reference is rather curious, as Vespiquen is still, as in Japanese, classified as a “beehive pokemon” (はちのすポケモン).

415 Mitsuhoney (Combee)

MITSUHONEY

ミツハニー

Pokemon name meaning:

蜜 mitsu – honey

三つ mitsu – three

蜜蜂 mitsubachi – bee

ハニー hanii – honey (Japanese word from English)

Notes:

The official rõmaji for the Japanese name uses the English word “honey” directly rather than hanii.  The ア (a) sound is always used to represent English short “u” in katakana, and indeed the RP pronunciation of English short u is close to the Japanese ア sound.

301 Enekororo (Delcatty)

ENEKORORO

エネコロロ

Pokemon name meaning:

猫 neko – cat

家猫 ieneko – domesticated cat

狗尾草 enkorogusa – green foxtail (grass)

心 kokoro – heart

コロコロ korokoro – small round thing rolling

Notes:

Korokoro is what is termed an onomatopoeic word, however, Japanese “onomatopoeia” does not necessarily mean a representation of the sound of a thing: it is a sound-word that represents either the sound or (probably more often) the feeling of a thing. Korokoro would imply a small, rolling thing – which seems more appropriate to the skittish Eneko than to Enekororo, whose official species is おすましポケモン osumashi pokemon – “prim pokemon”.

Korokoro can also be used to describe something or someone changeable or fickle, which might be more appropriate to this fastidious pokemon.

For enkorogusa, see the note on Eneko. Note that Enekororo’s tail is still a little foxtail-grass-shaped and that the grass’s fibers are now represented on Enekorokoro’s collar-fur.

For an example of the widespread use of korokoro see the famous children’s song below:  Donguri korokoro (Acorn rolling, rolling) about an acorn that rolled down a mountain.

Those of you who know enough Japanese to be upset by the rather sad ending will be pleased to know that there is a third verse:

どんぐりころころ　ないてたら
なかよしこりすが　とんできて
おちばにくるんで　おんぶして
いそいでおやまに　つれてった

Ahem. Back to Pokemon…

300 Eneko (Skitty)

ENEKO

エネコ

Pokemon name meaning:

エネルギー enerugii – energy (Japanese word from German Energie- hence the hard g-sound)

猫 neko – cat

家猫 ieneko – domesticated cat

狗尾草 enkorogusa – green foxtail (grass)

Notes:

狗尾草 enkorogusa

狗尾草, enkorogusa, green foxtail is a species of grass of which Eneko’s tail (which she regularly chases) is a stylized representation.

The literal meaning of the Japanese name is “puppy-tail grass”.

(click for a larger picture)

206 Nokocchi (Dunsparce)

NOKOCCHI

ノコッチ

Pokemon name meaning:

槌の子 tsuchinoko – mythical snake-like being

Notes:

An unusual Pokemon name. Unlike the usual portmanteau of part-words this is a jumble of most of the syllables of tsuchi no ko – literally “hammer’s child” the name of a mythical snake-like creature. In fact it could be seen as a complete “anagram”, since small tsu often replaces full tsu in joined words. So, for example, 失敗 is pronounced シッパイ shippai, its component words being 失 shitsu and 敗 hai. In the same way ノコッチ Nokocchi could be seen as an amalgam of ノコツ nokotsu and  チ chi, giving the four kana of ツチノコ tsuchinoko.

Tsuchinoko are described as being similar in appearance to a snake, but with a central girth that is much wider than its head or tail. Nokocchi has a wide central girth but an even larger head. Tsuchinoko are said to be able to jump several feet. The small wings of Nokocchi, capable of very limited flight, are probably  a reflection of this.

Nokocchi’s official species description is “地ヘビ tsuchi hebi (earth snake) Pokemon”. The tsuchi in tsuchi hebi means “earth”, whereas the tsuchi in tsuchi no ko means a hammer or mallet, but the word-play reference is certainly intentional.

184 Marilli (Azumarill)

MARILLI

マリルリ

Pokemon name meaning:

鞠 mari – ball

マリン marin – marine (Japanese word from English)

瑠璃 ruri – lapis lazuli

Notes:

Unusually, the official trademarked rõmaji for this name does not have the same pronunciation as the Japanese katakana name. マリルリ transliterates as Mariruri or perhaps Mariruli, but certainly not Marilli.

瑠璃 ruri, like English “lapis lazuli”, can refer either to the stone or to the color of the stone. Here it is the color that is intended. This reference is picked up in the English name Azumarill – the first part referring to the  word “azure”, which is derived from “lazuli” (lapis merely means “stone”).

183 Mariru (Marill)

MARIRU

マリル

Pokemon name meaning:

鞠 mari – ball

マリン marin – marine (Japanese word from English)

Rill – English word (running stream)

Notes:

A rill is specifically a small stream, indicating a small riverside water Pokemon (Mariru was pure water-type until Pokemon X/Y when she became water/fairy). Such reference to smallness is common in first-level Pokemon and when Mariru was named, she was first-level. Her pre-evolution, Ruriri (Azurill) came in a later generation.

298 Ruriri (Azurill)

 RURIRI

ルリリ

Pokemon name meaning:

マリル　Mariru – Marill

Liliput (English word)

Notes:

Since this Pokemon was added a generation after Mariru (Marill) and Marilli (Azumarill), the name refers directly to Mariru, by then an already-existing word.

Liliput is an English word coined by Jonathan Swift in Gulliver’s Travels, where it is the name of a country of people much smaller than humans. The term liliputian is currently used in English to describe something diminutive.

Lilliput was reputedly named after the real area of Lilliput on the shores of Lough Ennell in Dysart, Mullingar, County Westmeath in Ireland.

512 Yanakkie (Simisage)

YANAKKIE

ヤナッキー

Pokemon name meaning:

野菜 yasai – vegetable

柳 yanagi – willow tree

Monkey – English word

Notes:

“Yanakkey” might have been a clearer Rõmaji transliteration, however Yanakkie is Nintendo’s trademarked Rõmaji name, so we are using that.

511 Yanappu (Pansage)

YANAPPU

ヤナップ

Pokemon name meaning:

野菜 yasai – vegetable

柳 yanagi – willow tree

Ape – English word

Note:

“Ape” transliterated into katakana of course ends in “pu”. The small ッ(which becomes the English double p) is a slight mystery, possibly added for reasons of euphony. ヤナッキー (Yanakkie) also has a small ッ before the last syllable.

This is less problematic in Japanese, since in English a doubled p automatically gives the preceding vowel a short pronunciation (app rather than ape). This is not the case in Japanese. In katakana “ape” would transliterate to エープ ēpu, so it is really only the プ pu that belongs to “ape”. However ップ does not imply a short preceding vowel-sound to the Japanese ear the way ppu does to an English ear.