Definitely more coincidence. Like, Lucario is a Pokemon said to have an innate sense of justice. Absol sense natural disasters and go to warn people about them, even after people start to blame them for the disasters they are trying to save them from. Bravairy is called the Valiant Pokémon.

It's rather vague, but I've noticed that over half of the Pokemon I have fall under those two categories rather comfortably.