A Pokémon cry is the sound a Pokémon makes, and every species has its own. On pokee.si every one of the 1,025 Pokémon has a cry, and you can test your ears in the Cry Quiz, where a cry plays and you pick the Pokémon from four.
Why do Pokémon say their own names?
In the anime, they do. This was not Game Freak's idea. In a 2017 Game Informer interview, Junichi Masuda said OLM Inc., the company that makes the anime, came up with it. Game Freak was unsure, he said, but it worked out.
The games are different. A name is something you read, and a cry is something you hear, so the two do different jobs. Digitized cries are the usual sound there. Even Pikachu had one in most games until X and Y, DualShockers says, and the other Pokémon still do. A game cry is more like a sound effect than a word.
Pikachu, the Pokémon with a voice
Pikachu is the best-known game Pokémon with a voice, and its sound has changed over the years.
- Pokémon Yellow. Wikipedia says Pikachu has a voice in this game, provided by Ikue Ōtani.
- X and Y. DualShockers says Ōtani voiced Pikachu from these games.
- Let's Go, Pikachu! and Let's Go, Eevee! Wikipedia credits Ōtani as Pikachu's voice and Aoi Yūki as Eevee's. We did not confirm whether Pikachu's cry changed in these games compared with the one before.
- Legends: Arceus. DualShockers reports that the game brought back Pikachu's original digitized cry.
Names that came from sounds
Cries are not the only link between sound and name. Some names are made from the noise the Pokémon makes. The guesses below come from the name notes on each Pokémon page, so "may" means a guess.
| Pokémon | Where the name may come from | Audio |
|---|---|---|
| Pikachu | Pikachu combines pikapika, a sparkling flash, with chūchū, the squeak of a mouse. | Hear it |
| Hoothoot | Hoothoot comes from "hoot", the call of an owl. | Hear it |
| Cubchoo | Cubchoo combines "cub" with "ah-choo", the sound of a sneeze. | Hear it |
| Klink | Klink may come from "clink", the sound of metal lightly striking metal. | Hear it |
| Klang | Klang may come from "clang", the sound of metal striking metal heavily. | Hear it |
| Varoom | Varoom is probably "vroom", the sound of a revving engine. | Hear it |
| Mudbray | Mudbray may combine "mud" and "bray", the cry of a donkey. | Hear it |
| Mimikyu | Mimikyu may come from "mimic" and kyūkyū, a squeaking sound like Pikachu's. | Hear it |
Short names
In our list, 16 Pokémon have a name of just one beat, for example Gloom, Seel, Muk, Jynx, Mew, Ralts, Spoink, Spheal. Say them out loud and they are over before you can blink. To learn how to say harder ones, read how to pronounce Pokémon names, or play Say the Name.
What the Cry Quiz does
In the Every generation mode, you can hear any cry from Bulbasaur to Pecharunt. The wrong choices share the answer's type from round 5 on, so the look-alikes get closer as you go. That is a good test. Two Fire types can look quite different, but can you tell their cries apart with your eyes shut?
Listening like a detective
A cry gives you clues, even when you cannot see the Pokémon. Is it high or low? Is it one sound or several? Does it rise at the end, like a question, or drop like a roar? Say the Pokémon's name out loud, then play its cry. Some names match the beat of the cry, and some do not. Try a few and see which kind you find more often.
Why anime cries and game cries differ
The anime and the games are made by different teams. The anime uses voice actors, so a Pokémon can say its name in a person's voice. The games used small digitized sounds for a long time, and Pikachu's voiced cries are the special case described above. Neither one is the "right" cry. They are two ways to tell a story about the same creature.
Try it yourself
- Open the Cry Quiz and listen with your eyes closed.
- Guess the Pokémon before you look at the four choices.
- Try Who's That Pokémon? to match a shape to a name.
- Take turns with a friend or a grown-up. One person makes the sound of a Pokémon without saying its name, and the other guesses. Owl, sneeze and engine sounds are easy. Which Pokémon are hard to copy?
- For name meanings, read Pokémon name meanings.