Pokemon X and Y: Here's the connection between all the city and town names

Now that you've played a little bit (read: dozens of hours) of Pokemon X and Y, you might have found yourself pondering about the town and city names.

In past Pokemon games, all the towns and cities in the world have all had a common theme. For example, in the original Red and Blue, they were all to do with colours - Viridian, Lavender, Fuchsia, Saffron etc.

So what is it that connects all the places in Pokemon X and Y? It's actually a bit of a tricky one this time around, but there's a big hint - the world of Kalos is based on France, so perhaps all the cities have some connection to French?

As it turns out, they are indeed a little bit French - and the theme connecting all the names is fragrances and perfumes, would you believe.

That's right - if you try translating several of the cities and towns from Pokemon X and Y from French to English, you turn up with some interesting results - although the Game Freak team has clearly played around with the language a bit.

Vaniville Town, for example, doesn't translate directly - however, "vanille" is French for vanilla. Meanwhile the "Santal" in "Santalune" translates as saddlewood, another type of fragrance.

And how about this - "camphor", a strong aromatic block used in fragrances, translates into French as "camphre" - and there's a Pokemon X and Y town called Camphrier Town.

There are plenty of other examples too: the "ambre" bit of "Ambrette" is French for amber; And if you take the "anis" off Anistar City, you've got the French translation for "aniseed".

Some of them are just straight-up plays on fragrance names too, and there's even examples where the French is thrown away in favour of some English-fiddling.

Couriway Town could easily be "caraway" - a fragrant biennial plant. Meanwhile, coumarin is a fragrant organic compound, and there's a Coumarine City. See, we're not making this up.

So there you have it - the mystery is solved. Pokemon X and Y's cities and towns are all plays on French and English words, with references to real-world fragrances and perfumes.

Now that we've shed light on the link, see if you can work out the rest of the towns and cities, and let us know what you reckon in the comments.