Pokemon Name Change: WHY??

Pokemon originated in Japan. I have lived in Japan all my life, I know my Pokemon, guys.

All the original 250 Pokemon have their own names...in Japanese.

I always find it very strange that the US spent so much time to rename all the Pokemon so that Americans could say them.

They didn't do that with Disney characters in Japan. I mean, Cinderella is Cinderella and Snow White is Snow White. You could say "I like Elsa" and they'll know what you're talking about. You could say "I like Donald Duck" and they'll know what you're talking about.

Just Pokemon was changed. All the names. 250 but now it's what, 500? 750? I lost track.

Why did they bother? Were some of the names offensive?

Let me see,

 

 This is

Purin which is basically pudding.

 This is Zenigame (Zeniga-may)

This is Waninoko which basically means crocodile's child.

This is Togepi (Toe-gey-pea) which Kasumi (the red head girl from the original series) carried around all the time.

This is Picchu (Pea-chu) which comes before Pikachu. It's Picchu, Pikachu, Raichu, and for some reason Satoshi (Ash)'s Pikachu never seems to evolve into Raichu. Aren't they all supposed to evolve?




Do these names sound offensive or anything? I think their perfectly fine just the way they are.
And...I only know that Purin is Jigglypuff and when I first heard the name, it cracked me up.

I mean, JIGGLYPUFF!

I don't know the names of the other ones and I've only seen the shows, never played the games. Sorry if that offended anyone.

Tell me, Pokemon lovers, do you like the original names? And what are the English names of these critters?

I'm too lazy to do too much research :P

See ya later, alligators! :D


P.S.
I would think that renaming ALL of them would have been such a pain in the neck. The Pokemon are all conveniently named. Why bother?