#I was sinnoh and hoenn champ + galar fire gym leader

[tetrafy]

[littleeyesofpallas]

Finally... where this whole rambling thought process started, Pokemon legends. They're a lot less gym leader-y than Alola's Trial Captains were but in Japanese both the Trial Captains and Wardens are just called "Captain."

Funny enough Mai's name in Japanese is Yone, but Marley's name in Japanese was Mai. Both Mai and Yone are pronunciations of [米] the kanji for "Rice."

I covered Lian along with Clay in the Unova post, but his name is Kikui, referring to the Jerusalem Artichoke.

Arezu is a unique one. Her name was Hinatsu, from hinatsu-boshi[火夏星] which is an old outdated term for the planet Mars, lit. "Fire Summer Star." With Arezu being a play on the Greek god, Ares, both English and Japanese names are precursors to Mars, her descendent in Sinnoh.

Calaba's name in Japanese was Yugao, from yugao[夕顔] a specific variant of the calabash gourd. Oddly it's the same plant they took Roark's name from, but the two don't appear to be related... And Calabash is where they got the English name. Also she has an obvious korpokkur look with her diminutive size and the giant butterbur leaf, yet she wasnt named after the butterbur in any way????

Iscan's name is Susuki from susuki[芒] Japanese name for "silvergrass." Scientific name Miscanthus sinensis, gives us the English name. Still no idea who he's related to, if anyone...

Palina's name is Garana Japanese approximation of Guarana. Scientific name, Paullinia cupana, gets us the English name. Same boat as Susuki, no idea who she's related to, which is hilarious because trying to puzzle these two out was literally the entire point of this whole dive into everyone's names....

Melli's name I brought up along with Karen. Tsubaki[椿]:"Camellia." Weirdly no apparent relation to Karen's name at all, but tied to Sanqua's; sazanka-hana[山茶花] the "sasanqua camellia."

Ingo really doesn't fit this series on plant names... Ingo and Emmet's names are Nobori and Kudari from the rail terms [上り] and [下り], literally just meaning "Up-going" and "Down-going," respectively. Nobori being terminus-bound, and Kudari being origin-bound.

Sabi's name was Wasabi. Just straight up, wasabi[山葵]... Totally unrelated her descendent, Cheryl's real name is Momi from momi[籾]: "unhulled rice," reflected in her braided hair design. It aligns with the Sinnoh stat specialist trainers' theme of grains.(Mai:Rice, Momi:Unhulled Rice, Buck:Wheat, Mil:Millet, Gen:Brown Rice)

Gaeric's name is Hamarenge, which is the common Japanese name hamarenge[浜蓮華] for the Weaselsnout plant, aka Uruppu-so[得撫草], which is where Wulfric(Urup) gets his name. I talked about it a little more at length when talking about Kalos.

and so long as i've got space to fill on this last image...

Irida's name is Kai, a rather weak reference to shinjugai[真珠貝]: Pearl oyster, (kai[カイ] from shinjugai[シンジュガイ]) technically if isolated kai[貝] just means "shell."

Adaman's name is Seki, similarly a heavily cropped bit of kongoseki[金剛石]: "diamond." If taken alone seki[石] just means "stone," but obviously the two clan leaders just being "shell" and "stone" without the added context doesn't really make much sense.

And just to reiterate the Three Friends of Winter bandits were covered back in the Sinnoh post.

[Kanto] [Johto] [Hoenn] [Sinnoh] [Unova] [Kalos] [Alola] [Galar] [Hisui] [Champs] [Paldea] [Paldea2] [Paldea3] [Teams] [Misc.]

[littleeyesofpallas]

Finally, in the home stretch! Last set of proper gym leaders to date, until Scarlet and Violet drop!

Milo's name in Japanese is Yarrow, which is still visibly the basis of his Galar written name on his card and his uniform. And Yarrow is a common herb with a long history of medicinal uses. The Common Yarrow's scientific name is Achillea millefolium, where they might have gotten "Milo" from for his English name.

Nessa's name is Rurina, nickname: "Ruri," from ruri-nigana[瑠璃苦菜], meaning "Lapis Lazuli(colored) Ixeridium dentatum" it doesn't appear to have any common names in English. Not sure where they got "Nessa" for the English.

Kabu's name is kabu. Kabu[蕪] is "Turnip." It refers to the same Brassica rapa as Candice's(Suzuna) name, although hers uses an older outdated kanji. Also has a homonym thing with Kabuto[兜] the traditional samurai helmet which is also incorporated into the fire(火)type Iogo on his jersey

Bea's name is Saito referring to saito[菜豆]: "Kidney bean"/"Haricot." Her English name is also Bea(n).

Allister's name is just Onion, which I find really funny. Possibly alluding to him being a crybaby.

Opal's name is Poplar, like the tree.

Gordie's name goes back to using Japanese; Makuwa from makuwa-uri[真桑瓜] the "Oriental Melon." It ties into...

...Melony's Japanese name just being Melon(Meron[メロン]). I just kind of assume they had the Winter Melon in mind specifically, from her hair color and the ice type.

Piers' name, Nezu is from nezu[杜松]: "temple juniper." Like Clair, I assume this is meant to reference both the spiky leaves/needles as well the dark colored and sometimes toxic berries. Also homonym with nezu[鼠] meaning "rat" but can also refer to a certain dark gray or black color(I assume the color of rat fur) which sort of plays into the dark type too.

Raihan's name is Kibana from kibana-fuji[黄花藤] the Laburnum anagyroides, "Golden Chain/Golden Rain." Same family of plants that Drake's name is based on. Although Drake's association with it seemed a little weaker, Raihan has some unique added context; his league sponsor is MC Bank, which I assume is, along with the Golden Rain/Chain, a play on a Dragon's hoard of gold.

Bede's Japanese name was just Beet(biito[ビート]) as in the vegetable.

Marnie's name in Japanese was just Mary[マリィ], presumably from Rosemary, as it doesn't seem to relate to any plants on its own otherwise. As I recall, back before the game's release had been cause for a lot of speculation about her and Chairman Rose.

Figure I'll throw the expansion (ex)gym leaders to round things out, although half of them aren't that interesting or complicated.

Klara's name is just romanized from Kurara[クララ] and kurara[苦参] is the name of the Shrubby Sophora. Various species of the plant have uses in traditional Chinese medicine, although appropriately for Klara's type specialization, the plant's roots are poisonous.

Avory's just cropped from Savory(Seiborii[セイボリー]) the herb savory, of family Satureja.

Mustard is Mustard(Masutaado[マスタード]) sounds like Master(d) and obviously the mustard plant. (Oh and his wife's name is Mitsuba[ミツバ] from mitsuba[三つ葉] the japanese wild parsley, aka honeywart.)

Peony was also still just Peony(Pionii[ピオニー]) as a kind of joke on being the brother of Rose. His daughter Peonia's name was Shakuya[シャクヤ] from shakuyaku[芍薬], the chinese peony(Paeonia lactiflora).

[Kanto] [Johto] [Hoenn] [Sinnoh] [Unova] [Kalos] [Alola] [Galar] [Hisui] [Champs] [Paldea] [Paldea2] [Paldea3] [Teams] [Misc.]