Every Gender-Exclusive Pokemon Across The Generations

Like animals in the real world, Pokemon typically have genders. Most Pokemon can be assigned either gender, but there are certain species of Pokemon that can only be assigned one.

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While that doesn't create any problems with reproduction (since inter-species breeding happens in the Pokemon universe), it does give fans an idea of either what they were inspired by or what their biology is like. Either way, here listed are all Pokemon species so far that are either exclusively male or exclusively female.

This list will not include genderless Pokemon or Pokemon with special forms that cannot breed (e.g. Partner Cap Pikachu).

Updated Otcober 13, 2024, by Ryan Hay: Did you know there's a lot of Pokemon out there? Turns out there are more and more releases every year. This time around we're adding the Impidimp evolutionary lines, a trip of legendaries from the Scarlet & Violet DLC The Real Mask, all the Hatenna evolutions, and the latest legendary Pokemon Ogerpon. We also made sure we added some new information to some of the entries, as well as updating various entries to make everything read nicely.

25 Nidoqueen And Nidoking

The Confusing Continuity

The Nidoran family is the first group of gender-exclusive Pokemon, and they're so old they existed before genders were really a thing. Prior to Generation Two, Pokemon were not classified by gender, with the exception of Nidoran♀ and Nidoran♂.

Nidorina and Nidoqueen in particular have a weird quirk of not being able to breed, which means—yes—they cannot breed with their respective male counterparts. Whether it's an intended quirk or an overlooked mistake is a bit of a mystery.

24 Hitmonlee, Hitmonchan, And Hitmontop

The Fighting Three

Hitmonlee, Hitmonchan, Hitmontop, and its shared pre-evolution Tyrogue, are all exclusively male. While there are other pure Fighting-type Pokemon out there based on martial arts that could be either gender, the Hitmons are part of the select group to which this doesn't apply.

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While there isn't exactly any biological reason for them to be purely male, Hitmonlee and Hitmonchan are inspired by real-life male martial artists, so it at least makes sense on that front.

23 Happiny, Chansey, And Blissey

Keep Your Pokemon Healthy

With all the Nurse Joys in the Pokemon universe, male nurses don't seem to exist. The same thing can be said for their assistants, Blissey and its pre-evolutions, Happiny and Chansey.

They're not exactly mothers, but the extensive care they take for their eggs certainly carries some traditionally mother-like qualities, so the all-female gender ratio is sensible, if a bit conformist to gender roles.

22 Kangaskhan

Two Pokemon For One

Kangaskhan's female-only biology is largely inspired by the animal it is based on: the kangaroo. In the real world, only the female kangaroos carry their young, as the males are not assigned to do childbearing and cannot produce milk.

Kangaskhan's maternal role to its young is its whole conceptual schtick, so it would only make sense to make it a female-exclusive Pokemon. That said, there is no male figure that goes out hunting and protects its family, so Kangaskhan is innately equipped to play that role, too.

21 Jynx

The Ice Queen

Jynx is probably the most human-like Pokemon out there. Many of its design qualities resemble that of a human woman, with the hair and red dress and all. Naturally, it would only make sense for it and its pre-evolution, Smoochum, to be all-female.

Jynx is somewhat ambiguous in terms of what it was inspired by, with theories of its origins ranging from Viking women, to a Japanese snow woman called Yuki-onna, to the 'fat lady at the opera'. Nevertheless, it is clearly inspired by something feminine, so making it all-female makes sense.

20 Tauros And Miltank

Two Bovine Alternates

Tauros and Miltank are counterparts of each other, and each takes one entire gender for themselves: all variants of Tauros (Kantonian and all Paldean breeds) are male, and Miltank is all-female. That makes sense considering the bull, which Tauros is based on, is male, and the cow, which Miltank is based on, is technically female.

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If you're wondering, Tauros' cousin of sorts, Bouffalant, is not gender-exclusive, having a 50/50 gender ratio. It is based on a bison, which can be either male or female.

19 Volbeat And Illumise

The Bug Duo

If there is a love story between different Pokemon out there, it probably involves these two bugs from Hoenn. While male Volbeat and female Illumise are not evolutionary relatives of each other, they are almost always associated with each other.

The attraction between the two is no myth; they are biologically attracted to each other. Illumise produces aromas that attract Volbeat, and they can breed to create Eggs that contain either one or the other. Design-wise, Volbeat and Illumise were created with rebellious youth subcultures of the past in mind, getting inspiration from greasers in the 1950s and flappers in the 1920s, respectively.

18 Latias And Latios

Gen 3's Legendary Counterparts

Generation Three's Eon duo was the first-ever pair of gendered Legendaries, with Latias being female and Latios being male. They are both likely inspired by the concept of yin and yang, alluding to how the two are parallel to each other. They may also be inspired by aeons in Gnosticism, which often come in male-female pairings.

In the fifth Pokemon movie, they both have the ability of "Sight Sharing", in that Latias can see what Latios sees and share it with people around it.

17 Burmy, Wormadam, And Mothim

Four Evolutions All Together

If evolutionary lines were trees, then the Burmy line would be a corkscrew willow tree that has a lot of branches. Burmy can essentially evolve into four different Pokemon, depending on the gender and, if it is female, where it is found.

If the Burmy is male, it evolves into Mothim. If it is female, it evolves into Wormadam, and the cloak depends on the cloak it had as a Burmy, which in turn depends on where it was found. Despite sharing a pre-evolution, there isn't much information about Wormadam and Mothim's lifestyles with respect to each other.

16 Vespiquen

Combee are mostly male, but the small percentage of female Combee can evolve into Vespiquen. It is, of course, a queen bee, playing a motherly role of sorts by taking care of beehives and giving birth to more Combee.

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Contrary to Combee's 87.5 percent male gender ratio, there are quite a lot of female bees in real life. Still, it coincides with the idea of a queen bee, and gameplay-wise, it makes it pretty rewarding to find a female Combee in the wild.