Finnish players, names translated to English

[1989]

Barkov's name origin is "Borislav". Borislav was a first name and it literally means "forest and glory". But the "glory" part was lost with ages and the name changed to Boris. So Barkov means "son of Boris or belong to family of Boris". In English should be Woodson or Forestson or something similar.

Ovechkin = Shepherdson or Sheepson

Malkin = Queenson or Ladyson

Vasilevsky = Emperorson

Kucherov = Coachmanson or Cabmanson

Namestnikov = Governorson

Kaprisov = Capriceson

Zadorov = Fervourson

Tarasenko = Rioterson

Michkov = Demeterson or Motherson (from Greek goddess Demeter = mother)

Panarin = Apolloson or Lightson (from Greek god Apollo = light)

Sergachev = Guardson or Sentryson (from Roman name Sergius = to keep safe, to preserve)

Datsuyk = Patronson (from Persian name Darius = possessor of good)

Barbashev = Headson or Chiefson

Marchenko = Marsson or Hammerson (from Roman god Mars = hammer)

Svechnikov = Chandlerson

Buchnevich = Raucousson

 

[RageQuit77]

On Kapa (Sami Kapanen). Kapa is old Finnish word for wind/air dried fish, and still exist in compound word kapakala 'dried fish'. Surname Kapanen means literally 'of dried fish', likely referring to a locality where fish was dried => Sam 'of fish drying place'. '-nen' is diminuative form, but also suffix for an answer to what-kind-of question. Kapanens' family name probably originate from ancient profession/activity and from the place where that activity was actually conducted.

Sam The Fish Drier, Sam of Dried Fishes etc.

This thread is great one!

EDIT: Esa Tikkanen - Dick Woodpecker, lol, notorious pest, and famous side kick of The Great One.

Esa comes from biblical name of Hezekiel, but Dick is fine in this particular context. XD

 

[adsfan]

Okay mister science book man, tell me why the yellow sun makes the black sky blue

White light is scattered at different angles by the small molecules in our atmosphere. We have all seen a prism do that, giving us the Roy G Biv ( red to violet). The white light scatters with the blue going down into the atmosphere, making the sky look blue. The red light is scattered 90 degrees to the blue. You only see red or pink or orange in the sky shortly before the sun comes up or shortly after it goes down. When it is local noon, the red light is scattered into outer space.

It is called Rayleigh Scattering. Lord Rayleigh (RAY-lee) was a British physicist from the 1800s. His real name was John William Strutt.


BTW: Eeli Tolvanen hasn't played for Nashville in over a year. He was waived and the Kraken picked him up.

 

[Greatzsky 99]

in swedish lyd means obey

 

[Shark Finn]

Terrible, terrible, terrible. All around.

 

[Mathieukferland]

So I guess a play by play announcer would want to be quite careful with their phrasing if Lapointe and Larose were ever battling for the puck, hey...?

There’s a famous gaffe from Pierre Houde talking about Stéphane Lebeau and Benoît Brunet where he says "et voila Brunet avec Lebeau derrière" meaning "here’s the brunette with the handsome man in behind her" that is quite folklorique even to this day

 

[teugen]

Not an NHLer but plays pretty regularly for finnish national team.

Veli-Matti Savinainen / Brother-Matt Claywoman

 

[VistamarCroissants]

Ronni Jereminen

 

[RiverbottomChuck]

Quick and Rask

 

[johan f]

Rask is a soldier name. In the past men listed to army was given short names, often describing names. Even Quick might heritage from a soldier name.

 

[Zenos]

It’s interesting to read how many of these Finish names are so related to nature and especially woods and water. Very fitting.

Are surnames based on profession not common in Finland? Compare that to English or German or French where Tanner, Taylor, Miller, Hunter, Smith, Cooper, or Schneider, Müller, Fischer, or Couturier, Boucher, Belanger, etc. are super common

 

[Noutaja]

It’s interesting to read how many of these Finish names are so related to nature and especially woods and water. Very fitting.

Are surnames based on profession not common in Finland? Compare that to English or German or French where Tanner, Taylor, Miller, Hunter, Smith, Cooper, or Schneider, Müller, Fischer, or Couturier, Boucher, Belanger, etc. are super common

Short and boring answer: that's exactly true. Finnish names tend to be nature related.

The Finnish hockey player names are just typical Finnish names (which is obviously not that surprising...).

 

[Albatros]

Especially in the cities Finnish names weren't a thing historically, almost all non-rural names are relatively new or translated from a foreign language.

 

[karhukissa]

Ed Monastery - Eetu Luostarinen
Joe Stonebeach - Joel Kiviranta
Henry Riverridge - Henri Jokiharju
Hero Scalewoman - Urho VaakaNainen

 

[SantosHalper]

Are surnames based on profession not common in Finland?

Seppänen, Seppä=blacksmith. Only one that comes to my mind at the moment.

Well.... Skyttä, Kyttä=cop

 

[tempofound]

in swedish lyd means obey

It does but probably not in the name Lydman.

Lyd is also an ancient swedish word meaning "common folks" or "simple folks".

So Toni Lydman would probably be Tony Man-of-the-people or something like that.

 

[RageQuit77]

Rask is a soldier name. In the past men listed to army was given short names, often describing names. Even Quick might heritage from a soldier name.

True. Some other common Swedish soldier names in Finland (in no particular order): Stahl, Lång, Frisk, Hammar, Sten, Stolt, Rehn, Dufva, Svärd, Tapper, Pihl, Borg, Örn etc. (yeah, there are a lot of others too, several hundred years of shared military history for the King does that).

Many of these names are also later translated to Finnish names. In peculiar case of Björninen, old Swedish name Björn 'Bear' (also soldier name) is partially finnicized adding -nen suffix. Proper, fully translated counterparts in Finnish would be: Karhunen, Otsonen, Kouvonen... also to lesser extent: Kontio/Kontiola/Kontinen, Kontioinen. I suspect that Björninen is a result of double translation from originally Finnish Karhu (-nen/-la etc.) to Swedish, and then partial re-translation back to Finnish.

 

[RageQuit77]

There are also common surnames in Finnish, were the root word itself is considered as Finnish as possible, but etymology of the word is very obscure as these are not shared widely within Uralic family, or even within it's Baltic-Finnic branch. Currently most widely accepted hypothesis is that they are ancient substrate loans from now long extinct Paleo-European language(s) - Paleo-Lakelandic - spoken at Finland before Finno-Uralic speakers arrived to the Fennoscandia. These words are usually toponymic, which is the reason they are originally loaned in the first place. There are many etymologically very obscure place names in Finland.

For example:

Niemi 'cape' (Niemi, Nieminen, Niemelä etc. and as part of compound of wide variety of names, such as Kiviniemi, Leppäniemi, Vanhaniemi etc.
Saari 'island/isle' (Saari, Saarinen, Saarela, Saarioinen etc. and as part of compound of wide variety of names like Saarijärvi, Salosaari, Mustasaari etc.)
Musta 'black' (Mustonen, Mustola etc. and similarly a lot of compounds as above)