Pokémon Names in Japanese, French and German: Famous Names Compared

Pokémon have different names in different languages. Charizard is Lizardon in Japanese, Dracaufeu in French and Glurak in German. Squirtle is Zenigame, Carapuce and Schiggy. A few names, like Pikachu and Mew, stay the same everywhere. All the names on this page come from the Pokédex data on this site, which has nine languages for every Pokémon.

The names were made in Japanese first. When the games came to other countries, most Pokémon got new names that made sense in each language.

Famous names in four languages

"Rōmaji" means the Japanese name written in the English alphabet. The Japanese column is written in katakana, one of the Japanese writing systems.

What some names mean

Many names are clever word mixes. These meanings are from Bulbapedia's "In other languages" notes for each Pokémon.

Squirtle's Japanese name, Zenigame, is a word for a baby pond turtle. The French Carapuce mixes carapace (shell) and puce (flea, a cute word for someone small). The German Schiggy comes from Schildkröte, the German word for turtle.

Charizard's Japanese name, Lizardon, mixes lizard and dragon with "-don", an ending used in the names of prehistoric animals. The French Dracaufeu mixes draco (Latin for dragon) with "Au feu!", which means "Fire!". The German Glurak comes from Glut (ember) and Drache (dragon).

Bulbasaur is Fushigidane in Japanese, which means "strange seed" and also sounds like "Fushigi da ne?" ("Isn't it strange?"). The French Bulbizarre is bulbe (bulb) plus bizarre.

Ekans is a word game in every language. In English it is "snake" spelled backwards. The Japanese Arbo is "boa" backwards, the French Abo is an anagram of "boa", and the German Rettan is "Natter" (a kind of snake) backwards.

Pikachu comes from "pikapika", the Japanese sound word for sparkling, and "chūchū", the sound of a mouse squeaking.

These meanings show why so many names change. A joke like Carapuce only works for someone who speaks French, and Schiggy only sounds like a turtle to a German speaker. A new name in each language lets children everywhere get the joke, which is part of the fun of learning a few of them.

Names that stay the same

Some names stay the same across languages. In our data:

Names that are the same in all four include Pikachu, Mew, Lugia, Rayquaza, Lucario, Absol and the whole Nidoran family, from Nidoran to Nidoking and Nidoqueen.

About half of the Legendary Pokémon from Generation 2 onwards (35 of 67) have the same name in all four languages. The three Kanto birds are different. They got new names almost everywhere:

The Japanese names of the Kanto birds are just English words: Freezer, Thunder and Fire.

Newer Pokémon get more new names

Older generations kept more English names in French and German than newer ones. In our data, 30 Generation 1 Pokémon share their French name with English, but only 7 Generation 9 Pokémon do. In German it is 35 against 5. Of the 151 Generation 1 Pokémon, 106 have a French name and a German name that are both different from English.

Longest names

The longest names in our data are 12 letters in each language. In French that includes Pandespiègle (Pancham) and Banshitrouye (Gourgeist). In German there are Manguspektor (Gumshoos) and Brüllschweif (Scream Tail). In English, Crabominable, Squawkabilly and Brambleghast are 12 letters too, and Crabominable has the same name in French.

Other languages

Our Pokédex also has names in Spanish, Italian, Korean and Chinese (Simplified and Traditional), and you can see all nine on each Pokémon's page. Spanish and Italian use the English name for almost every Pokémon: 1,004 of the 1,025.

To learn how to say the English names out loud, try our pronunciation guide, or read how to pronounce Pokémon names. Say the Name is a game where you hear a name and pick the right Pokémon.