APokémon Trading Card Game Pocketplayer was not prepared for the ridiculous string of letters that makes up the French name for Golduck. The mobile game allows players to pull cards in different languages from friends and Wonder Picks, which shows the name, abilities, and skills of the Pokémon in that language.
A side effect of this is that more players arelearning what various Pokémon are called in other languages. Reddit userAWildModAppearedfound a particularly amusing translation when they got a French Golduck card. “I was not prepared for French Golduck,” says AWildModAppeared, sharing a picture of the card on Reddit. Golduck’s name in French, apparently, is thesilly-looking Akwakwak.
Pokémon TCG Pocket’s Akwakwak Is Just The Beginning
It’s Not Pronounced The Way Some Players Expect
The wonderfully named Akwakwak is actually quite logical, as the evolution of theequally delightful Psykokwak(ie Psyduck). It seems that instead of doing the “duck” route, the French version of the evolution line chose toname the Pokémonafter the sound that ducks make in French, “kwak.”
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Ridiculously lucky images reveal that not all Pokémon TCG Pocket players are cursed to always flip tails when drawing Misty’s trainer card.
TCG Pocket Highlights Some Of The Different Names Pokémon Have In Other Languages
Akwakwak Is Not The Only Pokémon That Has Another Name In Another Language
It’s actually not that unusual for a Pokémon’s translated name to be completely different from its English variant. In fact, Japanese Pokémon tend to have quite drastically differing names. Even thethree Gen 1 startershave different names in Japanese that make more sense in the original language: Bulbasaur is named Fushigidane (literally: “Miracle Seed”), Charmander is Hitokage (“Fire Lizard”), and Squirtle is Zenigame (“Baby Pond Turtle”). But those all sound pretty awesome,especially my favorite starter, Baby Pond Turtle.
But when it comes to funny names, French has a few more up its sleeve. Grimer is called Tadmorv in French, which means “Pile of Snot,” andits evolution Muk is Grotadmorv, or, of course, “Big Pile of Snot.“Other languages are no strangers to silly names, with some of my favorites being Schlurp (Likitung in German), Freezer (Articuno in Japanese), and UHaFnir (Noivern in German and yes, those capital letters in the middle of the name are part of it).
It would have been just as easy forPokémonto use the Japanese names across all languages but they chose to go the extra mile. ManyPokémon names are based on punsand it’s awesome to see how those puns and even some of the sillier names translate to other languages thanks toPokémon Trading Card Game Pocket.
