Players with nationalities you didnt expect based on their name

[Webster]

Gudbranson has Norwegian roots, same with Byfuglien (mom), Bjugstad, Skjei.

Zuccarello is Norwegian, but has name from mom's dad who's Italian.

Zibanejad is Swedish, but dad from Iran.

 

[Islanders10]

Zion Nybeck

Nybeck is for sure a swedish surname, Zion is pretty special though.

 

[Islanders10]

The first time I heard these names I would not locate them in Canada based on their names:

Nazem Kadri - Sounds Arabic to me
Milan Lucic - Czech would be my first guess
P.K. Subban - Intuitively I would locate this person to Sweden, for some reason.

Haha lucky for P.K. that he isn’t swedish - ”subba” means ”bitch” in swedish...

 

[Zenos]

There's also the much rarer inverse where the player has a more typically European first name and an Anglo surname, like Anders Lee, Joakim Ryan (whose mom is Swedish), etc.

Hahaha, those are some good examples!

I'll also add Kevin Fiala to the list of names which stumped me. Last name could be from many countries (many Austrians, Slovaks, Czechs have that name) but in combination with "Kevin", I just assumed he was from Red Deer or Thunder Bay or something. Nope, Switzerland.

And on a slightly different note - I'll nominate Laurent Broissoit as a player who I definitely assumed was from Quebec - or at least a French-speaking community in Canada (lots of French towns in Ontario and dotted across the prairies). Not the case. Born on Vancouver Island, to non-French speaking parents.

 

[Paulie Gualtieri]

P.K. Subban - Intuitively I would locate this person to Sweden, for some reason.

He'd have a rough time in Sweden with that name...

 

[PatrikBerglund]

Leo Komarov, although he has both Russian and Finnish citizenship, is actually from Estonia.

How many people could find Estonia on a map?

Everyone who doesn't think that Sweden and Switzerland is the same country.

 

[Strawberry Fields]

Hahaha, those are some good examples!

I'll also add Kevin Fiala to the list of names which stumped me. Last name could be from many countries (many Austrians, Slovaks, Czechs have that name) but in combination with "Kevin", I just assumed he was from Red Deer or Thunder Bay or something. Nope, Switzerland.

And on a slightly different note - I'll nominate Laurent Broissoit as a player who I definitely assumed was from Quebec - or at least a French-speaking community in Canada (lots of French towns in Ontario and dotted across the prairies). Not the case. Born on Vancouver Island, to non-French speaking parents.

Lol I was just gonna post this. If the first time I heard of Fiala hadn't been in a draft profile with a Swiss flag attached I would've assumed he was North American.

 

[Strawberry Fields]

The first time I heard of Harry Zolnierczyk was when he scored in a preseason game his rookie year, I assumed he was a European free agent the Flyers signed. Guess "Harry" should have given it away.

In the late 00s the Hershey Bears sometimes had an AHL-ECHL tweener named Johann Kroll who I assumed was Swedish but was actually from Minnesota. If his name was John or Joseph or something like that I wouldn't have assumed a thing.

 

[Jugitsu]

Gudbranson has Norwegian roots, same with Byfuglien (mom), Bjugstad, Skjei.

Zuccarello is Norwegian, but has name from mom's dad who's Italian.

Zibanejad is Swedish, but dad from Iran.

And Mika is a common Finnish name which is to be expected since his mom is Finnish.

Btw. Mika speaks Swedish, Farsi, Finnish and English.

 

[miscs75]

Uncle Leo was born in Estonia. I guess that counts eventhough he played internationally for Finland.

 

[Kaners Bald Spot]

Canada is still a new country so I expect to see a bunch of new names coming from hockey players as people continue to move here. Same with hockey players who move from North America like Paul Stastny holding three passports as he comes from a Slovakian background, born in Canada and plays for Team USA.

Sasha Barkov comes off as Russian but is Finnish.

Another is Brandon Saad sounding Syrian.

I believe his family is Syrian. There were articles written about his family from there coming over in the Syrian civil war.

 

[AD1066]

It's probably been said at this point, but it took me a while to realize Mark Streit is Swiss.

 

[Kaners Bald Spot]

Seems to be a lot of Hockey players with Swedish names that are Americans, usually from Minnesota.

Or Wisconsin, in the case of Bjork. Minnesota and Wisconsin have a huge Scandinavian influence. I spent some time in Minnesota, and there are lots of people of Norwegian, Swedish and Finnish decent there.
Like I thought Kevin Lankinen was from Minnesota, not Finland for that reason.

 

[Minnewildsota]

Brady Skjei. That’s an S, a K, and a J all right next to each other, so that’s a nope.

I understood that reference

 

[Macbanan]

When John Carlson entered the league I assumed he was Swedish for a couple of years.

Makes sense since the name originally is Swedish but many Swedes who moved to America Americanized their spelling. It's not reasonable to know as a non swede but those small changes in spelling make them very rare in Sweden.

Looked it up to give a few examples:

Number of people in Sweden with last name Andersson, Karlsson and Björk is 223 000, 166 000, and 13 000, respectively.
Number with last name Anderson, Carlson and Bjork is 1000, 2400 and zero, respectively.

 

[Stigma]

Although Zach Bogosian and Zack Kassian are North Americans, they are of Armenian descent.

 

[Kaners Bald Spot]

The golden pheasant himself, Andrej Meszaros. Slovakian with a Hungarian name.

You know, Slovakia used to be part of the Austro-Hungarian empire. Same with Ladislav Nagy. (Nagy is a Hungarian surname)

 

[Stigma]

I always thought Lindros was Greek too. Has "the look".

http://mr-sport.ca/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/08-june-1991-eric-lindros-768x1001-1.jpg

 

[BonMorrison]

Patrick Russell is Danish.

 

[21stAmendment]

Immigration exists guys. This thread is dumb.

 

[Beville]

Jujhar Khaira, Canadian.

 

[Karl Eriksson]

You know, Slovakia used to be part of the Austro-Hungarian empire. Same with Ladislav Nagy. (Nagy is a Hungarian surname)

No one likes the Austro-Hungarian empire tho

 

[cudi]

Lawrence Pilut threw me off for sure. Wouldn't have guessed he was Swedish.

 

[MoeTheHobo]

Did you think he was actually from Scotland?

Not many hockey players are from there, let alone ones who are that good.

Yes, I was very disappointed that he didn't represent UK in the last world champs.

 

[Bubbles]

Zuccarello is Norwegian, but has name from mom's dad who's Italian.

Many years ago, in the before time, he was known as Mats Zuccarello Aasen. That's when I first heard of him; I think it was on the prospects board. He became Zuccarello a bit before he was drafted.