I lucked out yesterday and caught a Snom on a raid soon after 3rd gym. It was a very welcome catch because I was worried about it being a late pokémon (on top of the friendship based evolution) ruining out Frosmoth as a team member. And thanks to friend ball, soothe bell and some items that dropped its (useless) Attack stat to raise friendship, it just evolved (bittersweet because I wouldn't complain if I had to spend more hours training that weak as fuck shit because Snom is just so impossibly adorable).
With the exception of Morgrem evolving into Grimmsnarl (something that will take a long while because I am keeping levels within the allowed by my badges), my team is already complete before I even got to the 4th Gym:
- Rillaboom (???)
- Orbeetle (Doktor Meister)
- Thievul (Renarto)
- Dubwool (Beige Phillip)
- Morgrem (no nickname because, c'mon, Impidimp, Morgrem and Grimmsnarl are already the best possible names)
- Frosmoth (Mme. Satin)
With the exception of some pokémon from my Alola team, the only time I tried nicknaming my team was in Sinnoh and it went terribly wrong (I gave them anime character names and I just couldn't take those pokémon seriously after that). This time it is going incredibly right, once the right nickname pops up in my head, I instantly grow a lot more attached to the pokémon itself. Right now I am pretty much in love with all of them… except the starter (I tried coming up with a name for it to see if that could trigger the attachment, but I suppose it needs to come spontaneously for it to work. Maybe now it has also evolved).