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Was Gretzky Polish, Ukrainian or Belarusian?

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blankall said:
Interesting. Best definition I can find is that it's a Norse word meaning cross-farm/settlement. If it's a Norse word, it would have likely originated in England not Ireland.
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Most English words ending in "by" come from the Danelaw region of England which was conquered and settled
by King Canute and the Danes. Even today, the word for "town" in Danish is "by." We try to respect our town by-laws,
which is a funny usage because it means "our town town-laws." Whitby, Colby, Holtby, Hornby, Crosby . . . they all show
a male family origin in, roughly, East Anglia, the Midlands, and on up past the old North Riding of Yorkshire.

Such names are also found in Ireland likely due to the long rule of Ireland by the English, and possibly also due to the
earlier bloody raids and occupations by our mild-mannered friends the Danes. As an aside, in Iceland I was told that the
male progenitors of the Icelandic population tended to be Norse, while the female progenitors tended to be Irish: Irish slave girls
captured by the Norse and brought to Iceland for labour and breeding. A tough and fertile lot, the Danes and Norwegians.
 
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Metroid said:
No matter what he is, there's a little bit of Mongolian in him cuz they used to f*** shit up in that area back in the day.
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So Gretzky has a strong chance of being related to Genghis Khan….that’s the weirdest yet realistic thought I’ve had today lol
 
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The Grim Reaper said:
I know very little of Canadian history, but I remember reading that there was a lot of Scottish / Irish ancestry on the east coast, especially Nova Scotia, Newfoundland, New Brunswick, PEI, etc. I think I also remember reading that there was a lot of influence in the Yukon as well, but I could be wrong. I’ve only ever been to Nova Scotia, but the influence was obvious.
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These cultures have been most influential in these Canadian regions:

Maritimes = Scotland and Ireland
Quebec = France
Prairies = Germany (and Ukraine to a lesser extent)
British Columbia = China and Hong Kong
Ontario = Kinda everything (English, Irish, Scottish, German, Italian, Chinese, French, Indian, Dutch, etc.)
Territories = Indigenous
Canada as a whole = Mostly British cuz of commonwealth
 
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snipes said:
Lots of Scottish and Scots-Irish ancestry all throughout Canada. You’ll find Scottish ancestry throughout all Canada, hence why Canadians are so damn tough overall lol.

The east coast Province of Nova Scotia literally translates to New Scotland.

The Fathers of Canadian Confederation were essentially mostly Scottish Protestants and French Catholics. Many, many Canadian Prime Ministers were of Scottish descent.
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Correct. I’m half Scottish and half Native. It shocks people with how I can deal with the harsh elements and be fine.

And the amount of alcohol I can drink despite being a small wiry guy :laugh:
 
htpwn said:
This is the answer right here.
(cut)
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This is a good answer to a difficult question. Part of my family is from the same region, and I've faced similar issues trying to figure out what my great-grandparents were. My great-grandfather was born in Austria-Hungary, emigrated from Poland, and his village is now in Ukraine. I've heard that he spoke Polish, but I was too young to know him or speak about it. The family name is more Polish than anything, but it is not out of place for Ukrainians to have it.

There is also the issue that a lot of Western Ukrainians were not Orthodox, but Greek Catholic. It is distinctive from the Roman Catholics (which most Poles followed), but they still accept the Pope in Rome as a leading authority (it's more complicated than that, but not worth getting into in a hockey forum). I mention that because it further muddles things: you can't use religion to identify people's ethnic origin in the region (especially in Western Ukraine and Belarus), and with people speaking multiple languages depending on the situation, it really comes down to the fact that you can't adopt modern day ethnic labels to an era when such labelling was not applicable (while there was a concept of a Polish, or Ukrainian, and even a Belarusian identity to an extent, it is not analogous to today).

In short, Gretzky's grandfather came from a town that's now in Belarus, and was part of Russia when he grew up. It's difficult to really say anything more, aside from him likely being Slavic of some sort.
 
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snipes said:
Lots of Scottish and Scots-Irish ancestry all throughout Canada. You’ll find Scottish ancestry throughout all Canada, hence why Canadians are so damn tough overall lol.

The east coast Province of Nova Scotia literally translates to New Scotland.

The Fathers of Canadian Confederation were essentially mostly Scottish Protestants and French Catholics. Many, many Canadian Prime Ministers were of Scottish descent.
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If you dig into everyone’s ancestry you’ll find all kinds of things you never knew about. Going on the prime minister part, the Trudeau’s are part Singaporean and Malaysian lol
 
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The old Polish lands in Latvia are now mostly in Belarus and not in Latvia like most people think. So the more Belarusian he is the bigger than chance he actually could have Polish line in it. Grecki is defienlety not Latvian, and I don't think it's Ukrainian either. Pidhaitsi was Polish in the era of his grand parents also.

But does it really matter where from?
 
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awegrzyn said:
The old Polish lands in Latvia are now mostly in Belarus and not in Latvia like most people think. So the more Belarusian he is the bigger than chance he actually could have Polish line in it. Grecki is defienlety not Latvian, and I don't think it's Ukrainian either. Pidhaitsi was Polish in the era of his grand parents also.

But does it really matter where from?
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Pidhaitsi was a definitely a majority polish & polish lands before World War.
But what about Grodno, now Belarus? Was it also annexed polish territory just like Pidhaitsi?

I personally think Gretzky's were originally polish who later lived and adopted eastern slavic language & culture living among them. Hence 'Anton Lavrentievich Gretzky' already sounds eastern slavic.
 
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User9992 said:
No, russians have their own 'Malkin'... -in are typical russian surname endings: OvechkIN, MalkIN etc.
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You're correct about the IN part. But the rest is Hebrew. Many Jewish names were Slavicized after Jewish populations entered eastern Europe. You see many Jewish last names ending in "sky" as well.

You'll often see a Hebrew or German/yiddish name with a Slavic suffix like "in", "sky", etc... This is common for Jews living in Eastern Europe. A common example is a name like Aronovsky.

And that's what Malkin is. You're correct about the In thing, but the Malk is of Hebrew/Yiddish origin.
 
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blankall said:
You're correct about the IN part. But the rest is Hebrew. Many Jewish names were Slavicized after Jewish populations entered eastern Europe. You see many Jewish last names ending in "sky" as well.

You'll often see a Hebrew or German/yiddish name with a Slavic suffix like "in", "sky", etc... This is common for Jews living in Eastern Europe. A common example is a name like Aronovsky.

And that's what Malkin is. You're correct about the In thing, but the Malk is of Hebrew/Yiddish origin.
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Yes. BTW -by & -son endings are from Norse origin.
 
Stive Morgan said:
Growing up, I was always told Gretzky was of Ukrainian heritage, but I'm sure it's very diverse.

Wayne Gretzky and Alex Trebek were always the Ukrainian-Canadian role models.
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It's funny you mention that because there are many areas in Canada with sizeable Ukrainian communities, like Winnipeg for example. And they'll claim people too, I have heard of Ukrainians going as far as claiming John Chrysostom as a good'ole Ukrainian boy and there is no point in even trying to reason with them despite the fact that he was as Greek as they come and in no conceivable way could be considered Ukrainian.

majormajor said:
You can only figure out so much with surnames and Jewishness. The surnames are shared among both gentiles and Jews and Jewish identity is traditionally down the mother's side, so Jews born to mixed couples will more often have gentile surnames.
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You're right about that as that is precisely the case with my mom's family.
 
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