So, I really like the suggestion of Stygian for melans, and I wanted to find a corresponding word for albinos too. Which lead me to checking the other Underworld rivers. I think Lethian or Lemosyne (both being other versions/variants of Lethe) would work well. The river Lethe is the one that wipes a soul's memories, so it's got a 'wiping clean'/'clean slate' sort of feel. Kinda washed out, which fits albinos.

Pearl and Obsidian. Pearls are typically lightly colored stones (only the ones used in jewelry are white, and those are often fakes. Real pearls are pale pinks and blues) and Obsidian is the gem that typically is found in old volcanic rock and it's typically a darker color (rarest ever supposedly found was a deep red)

This is an excellent point that should be considered! Of course, this is an English-centric website, but how these words translate to commonly-spoken languages is something to keep in mind.

Not sure why a change is really needed since it's not hurting anyone and that people will complain about the names not being changed vs the names being changed, but all I can do is shrug. My thoughts: Imagine having to title Pokemon: "Iridescent / Opalescent / (random other words that no one knows unless a person is equipped with dictionary smarts) Arcanine [Mega Forme Q] " for living dex fields. The names are already long enough that full, descriptive name titles are chopped off and can't be seen unless clicking on the Pokemon themselves. Maybe we could stick to smaller, simpler titles? Something that's easy to type and easy to spell? Words that people easily know? Opalescent would be okay because it can be shortened to Opal, just like Pearlescent can be reduced to Pearly, and Pastel is short. I really don't want to go through the effort to copy-paste words that I don't readily know, and I don't want to be stuck with some title that might end up being twenty characters long with no way to shorten the title. Call me basic, but why not just "Light" and "Dark?" or "Light" and "Shadow?" While "Light" and "Dark" could imply good and bad, like the Pokemon cards (Light Pikachu, Dark Persian,) it could also mean lighter colors or darker colors. While opal and pearl and onyx and obsidian sound nice and they're nice in size, they sound more like rocks and minerals. Also, onyx...Onix... really similar, might cause some confusion for those who don't know what onyx is and might think that's what Onix is.

Depending on how "fantasy" we want to go with these - "sun-blessed" or "sun-kissed" for Albino and "moon-blessed", "moon-kissed", "shade-blessed" or "shade-kissed" for Melan? For players with farm lore, these could lead to some really interesting lore. Downside, if "sun/moon" were used (rather than "sun/shade") it could lead to misconceptions about the pokemon somehow being linked to the Alola 'mons/games. I do *really* love "Stygian" for Melans, though.

Fine, call it/them "The Relaxed" then, which IS a Master Rank (Top Level) THEME in Visual Competitions in several verions of the Actual Game - and in Contests here on PFQ. Calling melanistic Pokemon "The Relaxed" i.e. Dark is Exactly what is being asked for here. If someone doesn't know, it can be directly backed up with in game verification (or any one of the Sanctioned Pokemon sites - i.e. bulbapedia), not something some user on here made up because They liked it. (as such a choice will Always face some sort of opposition).

I did propose some suggestions for names but people have said it won't fix anything and I agree with the points they've given. People who don't know can always be explained to about what melans/albinos actually are.

I personally am happy with keeping albinos and melans, I can understand why there'd be initial misconceptions but from an artistic standpoint I feel like the sprites would lose their charm/appeal if all of them were just white/black. But, if we do vote for change, I kinda agree with the below for Melans! Enigma is SUCH a cool term and is perfect for the rarest type! Given a melan is a shiny + albino mutation I feel like it fits really well. It could possibly be shortened to 'Eni' if needed but its pretty short already. As for Albinos I'm kind of torn, all the suggestions have been REALLY good. I like the idea of Opalescent, it feels like a good, clear in between from 'shiny'(rare) 'opal'(rarer) 'enigma'(rarest), but its long compared to all the other names. Maybe just having it as Opal works fine! (I think this one was suggested by Naomistyc?) Update before posting because I spotted it in recent posts: BlackBlood1872's suggestion of Lethian to match Stygian is really cool, I like the explination behind it :)

For Melans, I like the word Dox. Dox is old English for Dark. It's quick, easy and doesn't particularly relate to black. Keeping the same idea, Lux could be for the Albinos. Another quick easy word for light from Latin. Plus, then it keeps a theme between the two distinctions. Idk, but something as easy as Dox, Lux, and Shiny would be fun to have.

This is because Pokefarm is an english website with the very big majority of its users not being french that I wanted to point that out :'D Would probably not be a big deal here, but there's still the risk of creating confusion with the official name for shinies in french, even for non-french speaker, if they ever check the french side of Pokémon. While "chromatique" isn't the translation of the word "shiny" (you can easily check with a translator), it's the name used for the french translation of Pokémon, so I just wanted to let everyone know :)