In the third chapter, someone is talking to Ash and mentions she noticed he hasn’t named his Pokémon yet. He retorts that he has and says Pikachu’s name is actually Jean-Luc Pikachu, an obvious reference to Jean-Luc Picard from Star Trek.

Like a name someone might hastily land upon when they're joking about knowing Pikachu's real name. The entire flavor of the Pokemon franchise is Japanese. The name Jean Luc, however, is decidedly French. But not only that, there's already a fairly well-known Jean Luc whose ground Pikachu is encroaching on with that name: Picard of Star Trek fame.