How Come Past Games Were Named After Minerals?

Question

Platinum, Crystal, Gold, Diamond. What Is Up With Minerals And Pokemon?

Answer 1

HELLO STATESIDE_HEAVY. READ YOUR WALL NOW, PLEASE.

We'll never know unless Game Freak writes a tell all book.

I'm gonna try to explain this using colors first.

Pokemon Yellow was special because of Pikachu.
Pokemon Red and Blue though Charizard and Blastoise weren't real special to either game, it was still what you could could start out with and those Pokemon would become some of the mascots of the franchise!

Pokemon Gold and Silver now have legendary Pokemon specific to them (until after you beat the game). The main Pokemon in Gold is Ho-Oh and the main Pokemon is Silver who have colors of the same name of the game.

There are other games that might make more sense as they actually feature legendary exclusives.

Pokemon Ruby features the Red colored Groudon and Sapphire features Kyorge. Emerald, though contains both of those Mons, features Rayquaza.

You can kinda figure it out with Black and White and you should be able to get X and Y. They look like X and Y.

TL;DR: Its because the name coincides with the featured Pokemon.

Comments

And they ran out of colours. :3

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They already used Indigo :3
The Indigo Plateau :0

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They nevered used Gray, Purple, Orange, Brown, Pink, and Tan

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Or however many viable mineral names there were out there...Amethyst, Cobalt, Topaz, Jade, Quartz...
Or possibly colors... Amaranth, Amber, Azure... The List goes ever on and on Down from the door where it began.
Now far ahead the Road has gone, And I must follow, if I can, Pursuing it with weary feet, Until it joins some larger way, Where many paths and errands meet. And whither then? I cannot say.
Also, something I think we would all be interested in, a Pokemon Prism, or Chrome what would encompass all the regions

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Oh, damn, no one knows those colours. >.>
Red - Game
Orange - "Orange Islands"
Yellow - Game
Green - Game
Blue - Game
Violet - "Violet City"
Indigo - "Indigo Plateau"

And, of course, Black and White, but who cares about them.
Basically no one knows any colours outside of those 9.

Answer 2

It's just Nintendo's Style to have a common theme when naming certain things.

For example:

The theme of the Kanto Region is that most locations are named after a color such as Viridian City, Cerulean City and the Indigo Plateau.

The Theme in the Johto Region is that most locations are named from either a Flower, Plant or Tree such as Violet City, Blackthorn City and Cherrygrove City. Also note that planting berries was first made available in the Johto Region.

The theme of the Hoenn Region is that most locations consist of 2 words being put together such as Slateport City, Sootopolis City and Rustboro City. Hoenn may also be named after Flowers, Plants or Trees similar to Johto because of locations such as Lilycove City, Mossdeep City, Petalburgh City and Fortree City.

The Sinnoh Region doesn't actually have a theme. But it can be argued that it's theme is Space and Time.

The theme of the Unova Region could be based on "Clouds" since a few of the places seem to be named after types of clouds. (Nimbasa = Nimbus, Icirrus = Cirrus, for example.)

And lastly the theme of the Kalos Region is unknown at this point. It is based on France but I don't know whether or not that is it's actual theme. It's theme could be Life and Death based on Xerneas and Yveltal and AZ in the game but I rather doubt it.

As you can see from past Generations all of them except Sinnoh have a theme so you can see why all the Games are either named after a color, a gemstone and as of Gen 6 a letter.

If anyone feels they need to correct me at all in any of this feel free to comment and I'll edit my answer providing your comment is right of course :)

Sources: http://pokemon.wikia.com/wiki/Regions

Hope I helped :)