Pokemon FireRed & LeafGreen on Nintendo Switch Block 'Dick' as a Trainer Name—But Some Swear Words Slip Through

The Irony of Inconsistent Censorship

A quirky discovery has emerged from Nintendo Switch Online's classic Pokemon offerings: Pokemon FireRed and LeafGreen will not allow players to name their trainer 'Dick'—a perfectly common English name—while some arguably more offensive words manage to slip past the profanity filter undetected.

A Recurring Issue in Gaming

This type of inconsistency in name filtering is far from unique to Pokemon. The Reddit thread quickly filled with similar anecdotes from other games—most notably, the Pokemon Cofagrigus, whose English name contains an embedded word that caused issues on the GTS (Global Trade System), requiring players to nickname the Pokemon before trading it.

Another user recalled being unable to use the surname 'Cox' as a coach name in Madden 19, despite multiple NFL players sharing that surname and commentators saying it aloud in-game.

Why Profanity Filters Fail

Profanity filters in games typically rely on blocklists of words or substrings. This approach frequently catches legitimate names and words while missing context-dependent uses of genuinely inappropriate language. The result is a system that frustrates users with common names while failing at its core purpose.

For a franchise like Pokemon, where naming your character is a beloved first step in every adventure, even a small frustration like this can color the experience—especially for players with names that happen to overlap with blocklisted words.