Why is the pokemon called “Pikachu”?

January 29, 2014 at 8:21 pm (Anime (Japanese animation/ cartoons))

According to most sources, it comes from the Japanese onomatopoeia for sparking (“pikapika”, more commonly used for shiny and so-clean-they-shine things) and the sound a mouse makes in Japanese (“chu” or “chu chu”), because Pikachu is a mouse which gives off electricity. Googling “Meanings of pokemon names” brings up loads of complete lists of origins such as this one, many of the meanings being interestingly bizarre.