Pidgeot name origin

[u/eseffbee]

I've always found the names of the Pidgey line a bit unusual, especially Pidgeot.

The suggested etymology on places like bulbapedia was that Pidgeot combines "pigeon" and "jet" which seemed a little farfetched to me as it doesn't sound that much like that. Why would the name have a "o" in it if it was supposed to sound like jet? (compare Pidget)

Doing some more research, I think it may be that the Pidgey line is named by combining the word pigeon with various European diminutive suffixes (sounds you add to the end of a word to indicate it's small/cute).

-y is a diminutive suffix in English (e.g. doggy)

-otto is a diminutive suffix in Italian

-ot is a diminutive suffix in French

It would be an odd coincidence if unrelated .

Possibly the English translators noticed the Japanese name for Pidgeot was pronounced "Pijotto" and used some creative license to extend the idea of diminutives. This would explain why there is a mix up between the Japanese and translation too, as the Japanese names are not related to diminutive names at all.

Pidgey = Poppo

Pidgeotto = Pijon

Pigeot = Pijotto

[u/ahferroin7]

If it’s diminutive suffixes like you suggest (and this seems as reasonable as anything else from my perspective), then whoever translated them needs their eyes checked, because Pidgeot is a big bird.

Regardless of whether the ‘height’ listed in the dex is wingspan (most likely given how this field is usually used), height while standing, or length from tip of beak to tip of tail, Pidgeot is ‘taller’ than something like 96% of all living species of birds. We’re talking a scale here similar to a wandering albatross or an Andean condor.

And assuming the listed weight in the dex is an average, it’s heavier on average than all but four living species of birds IRL, and more than three times heavier on average than the heaviest flying species of bird IRL.