There's commentary on some information in this chapter at the end (I don't want to give anything away here) so look at it when you're done reading. Enjoy the chapter!
Chapter 3: What's in a Name?
"Hi Professor Birch! Hi Eevee!" Merenwen called as she entered the lab.
"Oh hello - " the professor started. Merenwen rushed right by him, heading straight for the Eevee's bed. "...Merenwen." Professor Birch smiled and shook his head. Ever since that Pokémon had recovered enough to listen and respond to speech, Merenwen had spent hours every day talking to it. She told it about herself, her planned journey and all the things she had heard and read about the wide world of Pokémon out there. The Eevee, for its part, had listened attentively and seemed excited about the idea of travel and adventure. Professor Birch was carefully monitoring its reactions and found this liveliness to be a very promising sign.
"Hey! How are you feeling today?" Merenwen smiled as she leaned on the table where the Eevee was recovering. It immediately stood up and barked excitedly. Once it had gotten over its shock, the Pokémon proved to be very friendly. Merenwen and Eevee were getting along very well, and the Pokémon trainer took this as a hopeful indication that Eevee would want to go with her on her journey. She hadn't yet mentioned that she wanted Eevee to come, because Professor Birch continued to be cautious about the Pokémon's chances of being travel-capable. But when Merenwen casually mentioned the professor's concerns to Eevee, it had responded emphatically that it was fine. At least, that was what it seemed to be saying, and in Professor Birch's opinion, Merenwen and Eevee communicated very well with each other.
One thing all their talking had not yet solved, however, was Eevee's name. Professor Birch had already informed Merenwen that except for a select few species, it was impossible to determine a Pokémon's gender. Merenwen had no idea what she wanted Eevee to evolve into, further complicating the matter. She had tried asking Eevee what it would like to be called, but it just tilted its head to one side and said, "Vee?" quizzically. Obviously, it did not speak human, and so could not suggest a name.
Today, though, Merenwen had a new idea. "Guess what I brought?" the trainer asked, sliding off her backpack. Eevee nosed at it curiously while she opened it and pulled out...a giant book of baby names! "See? With this I can give you suggestions and you can tell me if you like how they sound!"
"Vee!" Eevee nodded enthusiastically.
Merenwen pulled up a chair and opened the book. "First things first," she looked at the little fox Pokémon leaning over the table to see the book. "I don't know whether you're a boy or a girl. So you'll have to tell me. Do you know if you're a boy or a girl?" Merenwen reflected on the bizarreness of that question, but if people couldn't tell, the only way would be to ask the Pokemon itself.
Eevee merely tilted its head in that quizzical way.
Merenwen tried to elaborate. "Are you a girl," she pointed at herself, "or a boy?" she pointed at Professor Birch, doing paperwork nearby. Eevee looked between the two, seeming unsure what Merenwen was asking. The trainer bit her lip. Sometimes it could be so difficult trying to convey ideas between humans and Pokémon. She shook her head. "Never mind," she looked at the book, "I'll just look for names that could be either male or female."
And so she did. For the next half-hour, Merenwen ran down the alphabet from "Alex" to "Zephyr" and through all non-gender-specific names in between. Every time Eevee wrinkled its little nose in disgust, or shook its head, or sometimes paused before shrugging but still looking skeptical. Merenwen took the shrugs as a "maybe," but decided that if one was choosing their name, they should be enthusiastic about it.
Finally, she reached the end of the list. "Well, Eevee, I'm afraid that's all of them," she closed the book, smiling apologetically at her friend. Eevee whined and hung its head, seeming to apologize for shooting down all of Merenwen's ideas. "It's fine," the trainer petted Eevee, causing the fox's tail to twitch happily. "I could always come up with a non-human name, like Flash or Spot." Merenwen had, in fact, been trying to think of such a name since she first decided to train Eevee, but had been unsuccessful. But she was determined to think of something!
Merenwen turned to the Pokémon Professor. "Professor Birch, what do you think I should name Eevee?"
The professor looked up from his paperwork. "Well, I'm afraid I'm really no good at that sort of thing," he scratched his head. "You see, as a researcher of Pokémon I usually refer to them by their scientific name and don't bother about nicknames. Sorry."
"That's okay," Merenwen turned back to Eevee, but the professor added, "You know who you might ask? Your mother! I'm sure she had the same sort of difficulty choosing your name."
"That's a great idea!" Merenwen jumped up, making Eevee bark in surprise. "I'll go ask her right now! Eevee, I'll see you later!" Merenwen dashed for the door, but Professor Birch stopped her with one more comment. "By the way, Merenwen, I've finished my evaluation of Eevee. If you want, you can take it with you and begin your journey tomorrow."
Sound waves travel at thousands of feet per second. The human brain can process outside stimuli in millionths of a second. Human reaction time is usually measured in hundredths of a second. But it was a full five seconds before Merenwen screamed "YES!", jumped in the air and ran over to hug Eevee, squealing with joy.
-.-.-.-.-
"Baby names? Oh, I remember when you were just a baby! Your father wanted to name you after his mother and I wanted to name you after mine, and I told him, 'dear, I would love to name her after your mother but I don't think she would like to go through life being called "vicious old cow,"' and he said 'what, you think she would prefer "domineering hag?"' and I said - "
"MOM!" Merenwen shouted. When her mom got like this, she could go on for hours. Merenwen knew; she had timed her.
"Oh, sorry, sweetie," her mom sweatdropped. "Um, you needed a name for your Eevee? Have you looked in the big book of baby names I have?"
"Yes, but since I don't know if Eevee's a boy or a girl, it makes it more difficult. How did you and Dad choose my name in the end? It's not in that book, and it isn't either of your mom's names." Honestly, she had been wondering about this for a long time. "Merenwen" was such an unusual name.
"Aaah," her mom's eyes misted over. "Your name is very special. It comes from a foreign language. It's actually the old native language of the country I come from," she smiled at Merenwen, who was looking awestruck. "It was either that or you'd have to have his mother's name and I absolutely can't stand that woman - "
"Mom! Focus!" Merenwen was hyped. An ancient, foreign language? Unbelievably cool! "How did you know this language? Where can I learn it?"
"Oh, I believe we have the book around here somewhere," her mom waved a hand vaguely. "I didn't actually learn it, but I knew about it and I have a translation book. It's a dead language, you see, so it doesn't change or add new words, but you can translate most words from our language into the old one. That's what we did for you; your name means 'soothing aura.'"
"Cool..." Merenwen breathed. Now she could give Eevee a name that had meaning, but sounded so much cooler than just the word itself! "I have to do that for Eevee! Thanks Mom!" Merenwen raced off to search their shelves for the book.
It didn't take long to find it. Whereas Merenwen's shelves were crowded with so many books that an outsider could take minutes to find a specific one, her father and mother's bookshelf was full of only a few functional books, maps of Hoenn, information about Pokémon types, moves and evolutions, things like that. Among those, books such as the baby names stood out almost immediately, and Merenwen's trained eye located "The Edhelen to English Dictionary" in a few seconds. She grabbed it and raced to her room.
After glancing through the introduction briefly, Merenwen deduced that the book was just as her mother had said; it provided translations of most words from modern language. Because of the language's age and the fact that few spoke it anymore, words like "computer" were not included. This did not seem to be a problem at first, but after a quick look, Merenwen realized with a shock that "Pokémon" was also missing from the dictionary! Apparently, the people who spoke this language were unaware of these creatures living all around them. Well, Merenwen reflected, it was true that today new Pokémon were always being discovered in different regions, so it stood to reason that at one time, no Pokémon were known. This threw a slight wrench in Merenwen's plans to simply translate "Eevee." Well, more than a slight wrench. This was more like a wrench, a sledgehammer and a crowbar all jamming up the works at once, forcing a complete reworking of the machinery. She supposed, on reflection, that simply using "Eevee" was somewhat pitifully obvious. Well then, the best solution was to find a description word best suited to Eevee, and use that instead. Like "soothing aura" (which Merenwen found to be a very weird thing to name a child, even if it was in a foreign language).
Merenwen thought long and hard. What was an Eevee's strong point? What did Eevees do best? What makes them special?
-.-.-.-.-
It was getting dark when Merenwen ran back to Professor Birch's lab, feeling like she was doing quite a lot of running that day. Professor Birch was about to close up and go home, but he relented against Merenwen's pleas that she wouldn't take long.
She dashed up to Eevee, who was too restless to sleep after wrestling with the name conundrum. It sat up eagerly and pricked its ears as Merenwen gasped out, "I've got it! Eevees are unique because of their multiple branched evolutions, so your name will be Lessien! It means 'evolve'!"
So, about the meaning of Merenwen's name: don't read too much into it. I actually translated a perfectly normal English name using a website for finding one's elf name (search for "elf name" on Google and it's the first result). However, for the story it made no sense for her parents to translate one name into another name. They would just name her the first name they chose. So I had to come up with some words that began and ended with the same letters as the name (because the translation is based on the first and last letter). That's the reason behind "soothing aura." Just don't think it will be some major metaphor or anything (maybe a minor metaphor XP).
This "foreign language" I mentioned is actually Tolkein's Elvish as used in "The Lord of the Rings," etc. I do not own it (but I will learn it!)