Pokemon Black and White: English Names

As of right now several English names have been confirmed for things in the Black and White games. While there are somewhere under 10 items (Pokemon, Moves and Region) confirmed so far, we still have quite a long way to go in the anticipation of these brand new games.

So what's confirmed??

Pokemon: 
The Starters

Snivy.

Tepig

Oshawott

    

 Quite odd names, to say the least. Upon first reading these names, I immediately resented them in my head as they did not have that same "ring" the other starter trios had. However, I grew to like Snivy, as a combination of "Snake" and "Ivy", and for some reason some long awaiting search inside of me was restored. Snivy! What an awesomely catchy name! Oshawott, on the other hand, is just weird. I couldn't guess what kind of pun or word-play they were going for in that. On the brighter side of things, many fans anticipated the Water-type's name to be Wotter, and seeing that there is a portion of that name in its actual English name does justify the prediction to some degree. Tepig is an odd name because its potency is not as blatantly obvious as something like Chimchar or Mr. Mime, but has still come to grow on me. I can only hope the evolutions have names nearly as clever, if not any more clever, than these "decent" attempts. Snivy still stands as my favorite (at least in the name category).



The Foxes

Zorua

   

Zoroark

The very first Generation 5 Pokemon introduced. I was not let down in the least at the announcement that these two would be keeping their already deemed titles, because I thought their names were interesting off the bat. "Zorro", the Spanish word for fox is so cleverly incorporated here it almost seethes with wily deceit, as the two Pokemon's appearances seem to reveal. It stands that Zorua and Zoroark are truly just as awesome in design as they are in name.





The Mascots

Reshiram

Zekrom

These, I believe, were the first to be introduced as keeping their original names. Again, while the names give nothing literally away, they are to be pronounced with all the great mysticism and prestige of a legendary Pokemon, particularly of the Dragon-type clan. It is but a matter of time before we discover the English variations of their Ice-type affiliate, among the remainder of the new monsters introduced in the new games.



Moves:
As of now, only one move has been precisely confirmed in its English translation, and that is Hone Claws. This attack boosts the Attack and Accuracy stat of the user by +1. While the move literally "Hones the Claws", I don't believe it is a fitting name for an attack. While we've had odd attempts like "Follow Me" and "Me First" before, I think Hone Claws sounds oddly formal as opposed to calling it "Claw Hone", or something of the sort. Personally, I liked its original, tentative translation "Claw Sharpen" better. Let's see how many other moves' names are goofed up like this one.



Region:
For the first time ever, the actual Region name was changed in the transition of rough Jap-translation to true English name and it was done so drastically. While I liked Isshu, the Japanese name, because it sounded like it fit in with names like Hoenn, Sinnoh, Kanto, etc, I believe Unova fits nicely into the mix as well. Plus, the shift in region name is not nearly as grandiose as, say, something like changing Rotom-A's typing from Electric/Ghost to Electric/SomethingElse...


So that is the list for now. Of course, in the coming weeks and months we will be heavily bombarded with countless others, but until then it is always fun to discuss and speculate accordingly.

Happy Judging!

~Scarecrow