#prof.kukui

you know i didn't think there'd be anything to look up but funny enough the Oaks aren't actually named after oak trees in japanese. The name was poorly transliterated back into English from Ookido itself supposedly from Orchid and not Oak. But Green is still named GREEN either way.

Lance's name Wataru we've done before

Same with Wallace and Mikuri

Steven Stone is new though. Tsuwabuki Daigo, his given name might be a reference to deigo[梯梧] the Indian Coral tree Kind of a weird stretch.

Cynthia's name is Shirona, from shironanten[白南天]: lit."White South Heaven" where [南天]:"South Heaven" is the Japanese name of the Nandina domestica, "Heavenly/Sacred Bamboo." I'll get to her ancestor's in a sec... Neither of theirs are really related to her name at all...

Alder's name is Adeku. Japanese name for the Syzygium buxifolium, the Boxleaf Eugenia/Fish-Scale Bush. Strangely unrelated is his grandson, Benga, real name Banjiro named after banjiro[蕃石榴]: guava fruit.

Iris of course has also already been addressed. But also it already obvious.

Diantha's name is Carnet, from Carnation. The genus Dianthus gives us her English name. It's kind of funny how many of the champions have very clear visual influences from their flowers, but that doesn't seem as common with the gym leaders or elite 4.

Prof.Kukui is just named after the Kukui tree, state tree of Hawaii.

Leon's name is Dande, from Dandelion. I don't really have anything else to say about that... It's seemingly totally unrelated to Hop's name being a reference to Hops.

Volo is a weird case here... He and Cogita (original name Cogito) are both just named in Latin? I get that Legends is operating in the past but Meiji era Japan is hardly comparable to Rome??? His name means "I Wish," and hers means "I Think." As I said before, there's no relation to Shirona's name in the names. His final form does seem to echo the "Heaven" aspect of her name though. (I just put the dandelion puff as a stand in for "wish" because I had no idea what else to do image-wise)

Geeta's name is Omodaka[オモダ] from Omodaka[沢瀉] a tree called the threeleaf arrowhead/Chinese arrowhead (Sagittaria trifolia). Its also prominently featured in Japanese family crests, like that of the Sawada, included above.