What’s the difference between these two groups of names:

Group 1

BoingBoing
Dekoh
Megite
Nuvvo
Podango
Vimeo

Group 2

Metapod
Weedle
Zubat
Cloyster
MewTwo
Wooper

Group 1 is a list of companies I randomly selected from the TechCrunch company list and Group 2 is a random list from the Pokemon Pokedex from my favorite company Nintendo. This struck me the other day when I realized our sales meetings were sounding exactly like my kids Jack and Madeline discussing their latest captures in Pokemon Diamond and Pearl.

I wonder if the game designers at Nintendo worry that Spoink the Psychic Pokemon might be confused with Spoink the Contact Extractor incubated by BMGI Ventures? Is this someone’s full-time job? Do they have to get the legal department to sign off on these things?

And should I be surprised that there seems to be a Wikipedia entry for all 386 Pokemon characters (and that the posts seem longer than the one for Abel P. Upshur our 15th Secretary of State?)

I wonder how many companies on TechCrunch are also Pokemon names. I couldn’t find any, but I’m sure someone can write a quick script to check the two lists against each other. Let me know if you can find any.