okay sound off - the character is a drake (dragon) with a snowflake shaped face, is the name 'Snowdrake' actually a pun? Is it just a portmanteau-shaped mean nickname? Is this person right to be confused?

I don't know the canon, so to me that just seems like a portmanteau/mean nickname and I wouldn't have understood it as being a pun, either, even when it's explained that way, not all wordplay is A Pun™

canon is undertale. Drake as in duck, rather than dragon! And this particular snowdrake is named Snowy.

oh yeah I should have mentioned that I know what the canon is but just don't know the story/whatever

and arguments in the comments are that it is so a pun and we're all just stupid for not getting that

(well, that and an equal number of 'uh, no? that's not how puns work' comments but that's why I came here, because I know y'all will be sane about it)

(and someone was corrected with 'dragon, not duck' is why I said dragon since IDK from a hole in the ground)

He's a portmanteau! Puns are different. But yeah, Snowy is a self-conscious boy and whether or not Toby Fox knows the difference between puns and portmanteaus is unclear, but all we know is Snowy doesn't know the difference.

his colored sprite is cute af tho

snowdrake is not a pun of snowflake. like, that's just word play, not a pun. i'd be confused as well. cus like...... yeah. not a pun. a pun would be more like... "A dragon that breaths snow is a special little snowdrake."

Also, part of Snowdrake's thing is that he makes BAD puns and is mad and insecure because his comedian dad didn't think they were funny.

I could read it as "realized he could use his own name in a pun", or, if I was really reaching, realized his dad named him something that could be used in a terrible snow-themed pun (of the kind the dad scoffed at).