Pokémon Fans Horrified To Learn They've Pronounced Rayquaza Wrong For Years

As the list of Pokémon has expanded over the years, so has the list of slightly bizarre names. From Lickilicky to Vanillish, those responsible for bringing us new Pokémon with each generation aren't afraid to get weird with it.

So much so that those are just an accepted part of the lore now, and there's actually a lot more debate around those 'mons with names that everyone pronounces differently. Examples of those include Mantine and Suicune, but the pronunciation behind Rayquaza has also been confirmed and it turns out we've all been saying that wrong as well.

As detailed by The Pokémon Company and first reported by IGN, the correct way to say it is actually Ray-Kway-Zuh, rather than the Ray-Kwah-Zuh you'll more commonly here in card shops and multiplayer lobbies the world over.

Responses to that from the gathered community were a real mixed bag, particularly on Twitter/X. "The same people pronouncing Rayquaza as Ray-KWAY-Zuh probably also call this platform X. Not me," one said.

Another felt entirely vindicated after years of being gaslit by friends, "I KNEW IT WAS RAY-KWAY-ZUH. Everyone told me I was crazy, but I knew better."

One even suggested that the Kway/Kwah debate isn't the controversial part of the name, saying, "Is it weird that the controversial part of this for me isn’t the kway part—it’s the ray part. What do you mean it’s not Ruh-KWAY-zuh?"

Not to toot my own horn here but I have been pronouncing this correctly as I thought it was probably a quasar reference and I have never felt more smug about my Pokémon knowledge.

All the attention on the legendary Pokémon comes as it is set to appear in base and Mega-Evolution form will appear in Pokémon Legends: Z-A. That releases on October 16 for both the original Switch and Switch 2.