Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl have only been out for a little while, but players have already been discovering various glitches and bugs. A particularly strange one has recently been afflicting some trainers, though thankfully its effects are benign.
Some players, such as Twitter user glitchsaur above, have found that on occasion their Pokémon will, while evolving, suddenly take on a completely different nickname. In glitchsaur’s case, their Gabite named “girlboss” was renamed the more pedestrian “mike” while evolving into Garchomp. The change was a mercifully brief one, with the nickname reverting to “girlboss” after the evolution scene, but it was still an understandably confusing moment. Streamer Tony_Daddi was similarly surprised, with his Lickitung “Bertha” evolving into a Lickilicky named “Gustavo.”
It’s a thankfully mild glitch, as the names do revert to their original forms after evolving, but players have been keen to get to the bottom of it. The prevalent theory on Reddit at the moment is that the game confuses Pokémon name data between different players while online in the Grand Underground, a simple case of crossed wires in the code that may well be patched out in a future update. Considering the harmless nature of the glitch, though, it’s likely further down the priority list than, say, the bug that can clone entire boxes of Pokémon.
Those who do actually want to change their Pokémon’s name needn’t fear, though. Eterna City’s Name Rater will be happy to oblige.
