So apparently “Galar” is a Scots-Gaelic word that means disease. I wonder if Game Freak knows this?
Hmmm… whoops?
You know, I would love it if they did know this. You could make it an early hint at a kind of hidden dystopian reality behind Galar’s very standard happy-go-lucky Pokéverse façade, where Poké-Scotland is being oppressed by the Poké-English bastards and they call the united region by a name that means “disease” to express their true feelings about it. I’m just not sure Game Freak have it in them to be so delightfully subversive, though! Jim the Editor says “Galar” reminds him of galahs, which are a sort of very noisy pink and grey parrot they have in Australia, and that’s probably not what Galar refers to either, but at least you could conceivably make a Pokémon out of it.
Pokémaniacal 
On that note, Middle Welsh texts with a rebellious streak would refer to the English as a plague or a disease to be wiped out. “Gormes Saesneg” and all that jazz.
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Perfect; I love it. Though it’s a shame there isn’t really anything in Wales on the map of Galar.
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I’ve heard possible name inspirations “gallant”, “valor”, and “gala”. First two make sense to me with “sword” and “shield” (gallant and valor associating with knights). I see less association with “gala” but… maybe for the nobility?
I like the “disease” idea here because god only knows the series can use some darker depth (though they’ve been less shy about that), but I would doubt it. Unless they pull it off really smoothly, it could seem to some UK players that they’re insulting those countries, and I doubt Gamefreak would risk alienating any of their audience.
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