FEATURED ARTICLE:

the shift away from the __shipping name format in the pokemon fandom makes me sad.

to nobody's surprise, the creator of the luvdisc shippings list is a huge fan of the ship name format you see typically used in the pokemon fandom, or at least you used to. you still see these names being used for old ships, but it feels for newer ships that the fandom has drifted away from using this format, to rather combining the characters names, but why is this? though, this is not to say that people don't use these ship names at all, but there is a notable decline in their usage i feel.

since gen 7 i've been seeing a rather rapid decline in these types of names being what are mainly used to refer to these ships, to eventually in swsh almost exclusively the name combinations being used, with the shipping names seeming rather rare. how often do you see people call raihan x leon truerivalshipping, rather than the more commonly used raileon or kbdn? a lot of swsh fans in the intl fanbase adopted the shorthands that the jpn fanbase were using for the ships, which i dont think is bad at all! i 100% understand the reason why people did this, and i tend to use this same shorthand for ships i enjoy a lot when talking about them, such as nzsn + dnsn, but i personally find that this can sometimes make searching for art of these ships an absolute nightmare.

i understand the arguments very well, that it can be confusing to see a ship named something random like "scrunklyblorboshipping" or whatever, but on the other hand, i could argue the same for ship names where the character's names are combined. for so many other fandoms have i been in have i had ships where i've confused or misinterpreted what people were referring to from the name, due to another character in the series sharing a similar name with one of the characters in the ship. i do get that it can be confusing to actually find out what names are used for a ship to begin with, and that's why i think it's important to have a comprehensible list of these shipping names. i think the bulbagarden neverending romance list is helpful, but i also think there's somehow too much there for it to be as helpful as it could be for a lot of people. i also think the first come first serve nature of this shipping list has some flaws, but that's more down to some ships having more popular/commonly used ship names that aren't listed there in favour of listing whatever was suggested first, and the potential for a ship name already being listed for a ship, but said ship name becoming more popular for other ships. i don't have anything against this shipping list personally, however i tend to only use it as a resource if i'm really struggling to find the shipping name for two characters, or if i want to double check that a ship name i want to use for my favs isn't already being actively used by a ship that people post about.

i think these ship names are extremely helpful when it comes to sharing and finding content. and above all else: i just think they're a fun and creative way to name ships. i think they give way to naming ships in creative ways while also not making it hard to find content for them.

"but what if i don't like the ship name people use for my ship?"
come up with your own ship name for them! just be mindful to respect other people in the fandom + double check if people are already using that name for other pokemon ships! for example: i strongly dislike the ship name "NewReplacementShipping", because i don't like to view lyra as a replacement to kris rather than an entirely different character with a different story, so i opt to refer to them as "SoulCrystalShipping"! same applies to i wasn't a huge fan of the name suggestion of "RawShieldShipping" for shielbert x piers, so i tend to refer to them as "RevoltShipping", because i wanted something that felt a bit more creative/interesting!

and, some appreciation for the format! here are some ship names i personally really like (note: im biased as a lot of these are ships i actively like, with a few being some that were coined by me, but some of these are also just ships i think generally have good names that fit them well!)

DamselShipping - Sordward x Sonia
CypressShipping - Lance x Morty
GlistenShipping - Candice x Maylene
KuroShipping - Cheren x Hilbert
ShiroShipping - Bianca x Hilda
ConductorShipping - Emmet x Elesa
CheckmateShipping - Cheren x Hilda
PerfectWorldShipping - Lysandre x Sycamore
SherbertShipping - Gordie x Shielbert
EclipseShipping - Elio x Selene
AlacrityShipping - Hop x Schilly

it's totally fine if you personally don't enjoy this naming convention, it just makes me sad to see how it's gradually becoming less and less used, but i hope you can find more enjoyment for it through just thinking about how creative and unique you can really make ship names in this format if you try! i feel the decline in this format is definitely not helped by the fact that, in my personal opinion, a lot of newer ships just aren't named as creatively as they could be, but that doesn't have to be the case! i think it's perfectly fine if members of the fandom wish to come up with their own names for ships, and use those instead, so long as they respect others who opt to use the old name for said ship, and still tag stuff with that older ship name as well as the new one! and if a newer ship name gets picked up that's perfectly fine, i'm sure most ship names have gone through several before they've picked one they liked! from my own experience, the only ship name i've ever coined that hasn't gone through multiple variations is DamselShipping, but that name was born from a joke, and you could argue that it technically went through being called DamselInDistressShipping first, since the name was derived from that! i'm hopeful by the fact that i've seen quite a few scarvio ships use this format, even if not many!