Players with nationalities you didnt expect based on their name

[Hybbe]

Eric Lindros comes across very Swedish.

When I got into the NHL in 92/93, I genuinely thought he was swedish (I'm swedish), learned pretty quickly that he wasn't. I think his grandparents are though.

 

[Megaterio Llamas]

Always thought Alex Burrows was an Anglo before I heard him speak French.

His father is from London England but Alex grew up speaking French in Montreal.

 

[Phil McKraken]

When I got into the NHL in 92/93, I genuinely thought he was swedish (I'm swedish), learned pretty quickly that he wasn't. I think his grandparents are though.

I'm Swedish and I thought that too. I used to save Eric Lindros hockey cards because I thought he was Swedish.

 

[Reddwit]

I was shocked to find out Andreas Lilja was of African descent.

 

[MoeTheHobo]

Henrik Borgstrom most probably comes from the Aalands finns and there are plenty of Finnish players like that but I still thought of him as Swedish for a while.

Less than 10% of the Swedish speaking population of Finland comes from the Åland and he is not one of them. Borgström is in fact not a Swedish speaker despite his name

 

[TOGuy14]

William Nylander is as Canadian as maple syrup.

Born in Calgary Alberta

 

[BruinLVGA]

Johnny Oduya - nothing about that sounds Swedish to me as a Canadian.
Also, I thought Roberto Luongo and Milan Lucic were Italian for the longest time.

Italian? Ahahahah my sides are splitting.

 

[CrosbyStaalsAndNash]

Italian? Ahahahah my sides are splitting.

Hahaha, yeah I was pretty fired up to see some Italian presence in the NHL. Then I saw both were being considered for Canada's Olympic team in 2010, and found I was way off on their nationality.

 

[foggyvisor]

Apparently:

Anders Lee is not Asian

Hal Gill is not Punjabi

 

[Zenos]

Hahaha, yeah I was pretty fired up to see some Italian presence in the NHL. Then I saw both were being considered for Canada's Olympic team in 2010, and found I was way off on their nationality.

Not to be a jerk, but "Milan" isn’t even an Italian name. The city itself is called Milano and it’s definitely not a (common) boys name in Italy (let’s not even address Lucic )

On the other hand, Roberto Luongo‘s dad is Italian. So not far off at all.

 

[tarheelhockey]

There are so many Euros in the league now I automatically assume a weird last name is European only to find later out they're Canadian or American. E.g., Scheifele, Guentzel, Boeser, Ekblad, Slavin (and many more).

To be fair, those names are northern European.

 

[jetsforever]

I was surprised that "Jaccob" Slavin is from somewhere that knows how English letters work.

 

[jetsforever]

Always thought Alex Burrows was an Anglo before I heard him speak French.

It becomes more obvious when you realise his name is actually Alexandre Ménard-Burrows.

 

[LaTenderness]

Paul Korea



Im sure someone said that already tho ...

 

[LaTenderness]

William Nylander is as Canadian as maple syrup.

Born in Calgary Alberta

Actually 98% of the worlds maple syrup reserves come for Quebec ...... and Wee Willy is Way too soft to be French Canadian.

 

[Galactico]

When I was a kid, I always thought that Mike Bossy was French-Canadian because of the way his last name was written and pronounced in the Soviet Union ( with the stress on the last syllable) but he is in fact of Ukrainian origin.

Colaiacovo sounded Finnish to me when I heard it, maybe because it has so many vowels.

With all the history of immigration, you can hardly be surprised by so many non-anglo last names in North America but when Bjork's parents decided to call him Anders and not Andrew, that can throw you off.

Henrik Borgstrom most probably comes from the Aalands finns and there are plenty of Finnish players like that but I still thought of him as Swedish for a while.

My all time favourite name is Hnat Domenicheli. His last name can't be more Italian while his first name is a really old-time classic Ukrainian name and these names appear to have nothing in common when put together. It's like having someone named Hans de la Pena, or like Zbigniew Dubois. Or, Vladimir Guerrero

Well Mike Bossy IS French Canadian.

 

[DowJones]

I was shocked to find out Andreas Lilja was of African descent.

Yeah, but then even his own teammate couldn’t get it sorted out.

 

[Alicat]

Who knew that Satan was a Russian ??!

He's Slovakian

 

[Treb]

Said it.previoisly
.New Brunswick, aka the ass crack of Canada. True that i didnt met any when i lived in MTL

Weird. It's definitely not of French origin, most likely Germanic/Scottish. From what I gathered, several Lang came to Canada in the late 18th/19th century under the British rule.

 

[crobro]

Darcy Rota is Philipino

 

[canuck2010]

Actually 98% of the worlds maple syrup reserves come for Quebec ...... and Wee Willy is Way too soft to be French Canadian.

Way too soft to come from the Ottawa Valley as well and I'll put Lanark County Maple syrup up against any, anywhere, anytime. Temple's, Fortune's, all good Canadian Boys lol.

 

[Pastor Of Muppetz]

Douglas Murrray...Was surprised to learn that he's Swedish?

 

[Garl]

In Russia everyone thought that Martin Gelinas is czech or slovak, since in russian our sports press was writing his name as Martin Zhilina

 

[Shinjuku Calling]

Brandon yip is half Irish

 

[McGarnagle]

Giroux is from a French town in Ontario

Claude Julien too