Why won't Eevee evolve even after renaming it in Pokemon Go?

I read that there's a trick where you rename your Eevee to Rainer and it will evolve into Vaporeon (and likewise, other names will result in other evolutions), but it's not working for me.

  • This is the only Eevee I have
  • Eevee has a CP value of 188
  • I have set its name to Rainer
  • I restarted the app

What are the possibilities of the things I'm doing wrong? Do I still have to have 25 candies to evolve it?


Solution 1:

Yes, you still need to feed your Eevee candies to evolve it. The trick you're referring to is a popular trick to control which Pokémon Eevee will evolve into.

In the traditional games, you need to give Eevee an evolution stone to make it evolve. A Water Stone for Vaporeon, a Thunder Stone for Jolteon, and a Fire Stone for Flareon. Since these stones don't exist in Pokémon Go, Eevee evolves randomly into either.

To avoid having to rely on luck, people have attempted to determine what Eevee will evolve into. Eventually, it was discovered that renaming Eevee allows players to define which Pokémon Eevee will evolve into, assuming that evolution had not been registered in their Pokédex before:

Evolution Eevee Nickname Regular Evolution method
Vaporeon Rainer Chosen at random if no other evolution requirement is met
Jolteon Sparky Chosen at random if no other evolution requirement is met
Flareon Pyro Chosen at random if no other evolution requirement is met
Espeon Sakura Walk 10km with Eevee as your Buddy, and evolve in the day
Umbreon Tamao Walk 10km with Eevee as your Buddy, and evolve at night
Leafeon Linnea Evolve near Pokéstop under the effect of Mossy Lure
Glaceon Rea Evolve near Pokéstop under the effect of Glacial Lure
Sylveon Kira Earn 70 Hearts as your buddy

Restarting the game is only used to ensure that your Eevee has been renamed, since the servers aren't always available. By restarting, you can determine if your Eevee has been successfully renamed before you spend candies to evolve it.

Of course, this doesn't change the fact that you still need candies to evolve your Pokémon. Also keep in mind that the trick only works once per nickname (thanks @MBorg).