Was Gretzky Polish, Ukrainian or Belarusian?

[glovesave_35]

The borders shifted so much that they could have stayed in the same place and been in 3 different countries. I’m not sure what it is that causes families to identify with one ethnicity/nationality/culture over another in those regions. If you asked their great great grandparents they would probably be able to explain it in perfect detail, but today it just “is what it is”. I’m part Polish, even though I know that the region they hail from and some of the family names are more Ukrainian by today’s standards. But they knew they were Polish, for whatever reason, from whatever historical juncture their identities were forged and passed down. Maybe there was a mean drunk Ukrainian-origin great grandfather at one point and that line of heritage was shunned.

That is really interesting. I think in many cases this is where linguistics comes in handy.

 

[glovesave_35]

Staal sounds more Norwegian for me. I think it's interesting that many Swedes have very German-sounding names.

Google says it's Dutch, but it seems to have cognates in other Germanic languages.

"Staal is a Dutch surname, cognate to German Stahl, meaning "steel". Though possibly also of patronymic origin, it may be a metonymic occupational surname referring to a smith. Notable people with the surname include: Abraham Staal (1752–1804), Dutch Mennonite teacher and political activist."

In this case, I imagine the spellings are different but the sound is very close in both Dutch and German.

 

[hoglund]

Where you're born is what you are. He was born in Brantford, Ontario, Canada so he's Canadian.

 

[Albatros]

Google says it's Dutch, but it seems to have cognates in other Germanic languages.

"Staal is a Dutch surname, cognate to German Stahl, meaning "steel". Though possibly also of patronymic origin, it may be a metonymic occupational surname referring to a smith. Notable people with the surname include: Abraham Staal (1752–1804), Dutch Mennonite teacher and political activist."

In this case, I imagine the spellings are different but the sound is very close in both Dutch and German.

It would not sound natural pronounced like Stahl, for example there is no postalveolar fricative in Dutch (compare 'sit' and 'shit').

 

[Number 57]

Where you're born is what you are. He was born in Brantford, Ontario, Canada so he's Canadian.

And Dany Heatley is german

 

[LeHab]

I doubt Gretzky was born on this planet.

 

[Human]

Vich is slavic. The origin of the name isn't jewish even if would be mostly jewish people with that name

I know vich is slavic, I’m from an eastern european country myself. That type of long name with the termination is used by jewish ppl from that region a lot it seems like…

 

[kudla]

Could have been Grecki in polish and then transformed into Gretzky

 

[User9992]

Could have been Grecki in polish and then transformed into Gretzky

'Grecki/Gretzky' surname is quite popular in Belarus. In Ukraine too as 'Gritsko/Gritzko'.

 

[Metroid]

How's his Slav squat tho?

 

[Foppberg]

Where you're born is what you are. He was born in Brantford, Ontario, Canada so he's Canadian.

Well yeah. But the OP was talking about his families origin. Nothing wrong with his question.

 

[MarkusKetterer]

It's always interesting to note that every Canadian/American has ancestors in Europe or somewhere else in the World. I would be curious to know the Habs' ancestors history for exemple. Just going by their name;

Gallagher - Irish
Price/Byron/Anderson/Caufield/Evans/Allen/Perry/Edmundson - English
Suzuki - Japanese
Danault/Drouin - French
Weber - German
Kulak - Russian
Staal - Dutch
Chiarot - Italian

Not every Canadian or American. Natives don't.

But this isn't the forum to discuss that topic.

 

[hoglund]

Well yeah. But the OP was talking about his families origin. Nothing wrong with his question.

I agree that there was nothing wrong with the question, I was giving my opinion that I think that where you're born and or grow up is what you are.

 

[Foppberg]

I agree that there was nothing wrong with the question, I was giving my opinion that I think that where you're born and or grow up is what you are.

Kind of in a scolding way, that way not have been your intent though.

 

[Kahvi]

It's always interesting to note that every Canadian/American has ancestors in Europe or somewhere else in the World.

Ok, I assume you are excluding natives. So it's really not that surprising that Canadians and American have ancestors somewhere else in the world.

 

[Torspo21]

From wikipedia (Walter Gretzky) => The Gretzky family were landowners in the multinational Russian Empire, and supporters of Tsar Nicholas II[3] originally from Grodno (now in Belarus).[4] Prior to the outbreak of the Russian Revolution, Gretzky's father Anton ("Tony") Gretzky (Polish: Antoni Grecki, Belarusian: Антон Грэцкі) immigrated along with his family to Canada via the United States, landing first in Chicago.[3] Following World War I, Anton, who served in the Canadian Expeditionary Force,[3] would marry his wife, Mary, who immigrated from the town of Pidhaitsi, in what was then eastern Poland and after the war became western Ukraine due to border shifts.[5]

 

[AvroArrow]

Staal sounds more Norwegian for me. I think it's interesting that many Swedes have very German-sounding names.

Swedes and Germans are linked a lot closer than we think. Lots of Swedish/viking tribes were descendants of German tribes who split off and settled in Sweden/Norway/Denmark. There are also recorded raids later on where the Vikings/Swedes pillaged Germany and some even settled there. History overall is a mess but quite interesting. Germany had a huge influence on Sweden in the middle ages as well, they were pretty closely related and it was a pretty popular language in Sweden until the 2nd world war, so it makes sense.

 

[hoglund]

Kind of in a scolding way, that way not have been your intent though.

Sorry, I didn't intend it to be condescending or a scolding way.

 

[castle]

As a German speaker, I can read Dutch and can understand a good chunk of it too. As a Spanish speaker, the same with Italian and even more so with Portuguese (especially the Brazilian accent). My danish / Norwegian friends tell me they have no problem understanding each other (apparently there are two forms of Norwegian — one of which, according to one friend, is “practically identical” to Danish). Both struggle to understand Swedish. Then my Slovakian friends say they can understand Polish snd Czech, but a Czech friend says he can understand Slovak but not Polish, which I’ve always found fascinating. My Estonian friends can understand Finnish; Finns can understand Estonian. It’s a small world after all.

Oh... I've been wondering why the Finns and Estonians appear to share an embassy here in AU

 

[Dog]

Technically, his ancestry could be more than just those 3 countries. I recently did ancestry DNA test found out my ancestry is from 7 different regions in Europe.

 

[DannyGallivan]

Canadian.

 

[BOS358]

The borders shifted so much that they could have stayed in the same place and been in 3 different countries.

This. Trying to narrow it down is practically an exercise in futility even before you realize that a lot of regions have mutually-intelligible languages (think the former Czechoslovakia + Poland + Russia or Norway/ Sweden/ Denmark.)

I’m not sure what it is that causes families to identify with one ethnicity/nationality/culture over another in those regions.

Great question. Look at Mario Andretti, who was born in present day Croatia.

 

[Kahvi]

My Estonian friends can understand Finnish; Finns can understand Estonian. It’s a small world after all.

Finnish and Estonian are close languages, but random Finn wouldn't understand Estonian, at least anything other than basic words. And some similar sounding words mean completely different things. Your friend has probably learned Finnish by watching finnish tv or something, that used to be a thing in the Soviet era when Finnish TV broadcasts could be seen in Estonia (in the Tallinn area at least)

 

[Tres Peleches]

Borders have changed so much there and for some families it has been quite fluid. The Gretzky name sounds more russian/belarusian than polish to me. But the same name should exist in Poland too, maybe spelled differently.

Gretzky could just be an anglicization of his name too

 

[glovesave_35]

It would not sound natural pronounced like Stahl, for example there is no postalveolar fricative in Dutch (compare 'sit' and 'shit').

Ahh, right. I am far from an expert so I appreciate your input. They are similar'ish though, right? I mean, I can catch similarities in Old English with Modern English even though they've gone through a number of changes over the years. Doesn't make them "the same", of course.