>>25232004They have an interesting dilemma. Not only do they have to come up with a name that suits the monster, they also need to try and find one that makes the same kind of references the Japanese one does. That way the jokes that appear in the native Japanese translate smoothly in the localization process.
Take a look at Inkay. Its Jap name is Maaiika, which is a small pronunciation away from a phrase that means "well, I guess it's all right". The localization team had to get the squid theme across and include a similar gimmick to the name. They did a pretty good job, Inkay can pass for "mm-kay" fairly well, which gets the point across. They probably had to scrap a lot of better squiddy names for the sake of the joke though.
Before Pokemon really cared about this shit, you ended up with problems like Wobbufett. Its Jap name had a similar situation, Sonansu is from a colloquial phrase that roughly means "so that's how it is". In English, Wobbuffet is a pretty good name; it wobbles and buffets the opponent, a punching bag that hits back. Great. But when it became a part of Team Rocket's motto, instead of its Jap name saying "THAT'S HOW IT IS" to cap the motto off, you just have a jarring "WOOOOBBUFFET" that ruins the moment.
tl;dr their job is harder than you probably think
