The always important "translated surnames"-thread.

[mattihp]

You are actually right.

The Finnish -nen actually means 'little' or 'son'.
It is still used in Finnish (eg 'poikanen' - little boy', 'tyttönen'-little girl')
so in names it would translate as the 'junior' or 'son' or 'the smaller one'.

The FIN players with Swedish names

Fredrik Norrena = the other from north ( yksi/toinen pohjoisesta )
Niklas Bäckstöm = stream rapids
Toni Lydman = lyda - to obey
Aki Berg = mountain
Petteri Nummelin = (mix of FIN and SWE) Nummi means 'moor, 'grassy fields'
Niklas Hagman = Hage - Hook

Norrena is also a word for the old nordic language "Fornnordiska".

 

[mattihp]

So... a descendant of Salo might be known as Salonen some time down the road?

In fact, the name Salonen is even more common than Salo in Finland ^^

 

[Weztex]

What about these names?

Patrick Marleau
Vincent Damphousse

As far as I know Marleau and Damphousse doesn't mean anything in french. But I'll keep searching for the origins.

 

[Weztex]

Francis Bouillon = Francis Broth
Vincent Lecavalier = Off-hand Vinny OR Vincent the horseman
Martin Lapointe = Martin The Pike
Martin Brodeur = Martin Embroiderer
Maurice Richard = Maurice Big Rich
Guy Lafleur = Guy The Flower
Jacques Lemaire = Jacques The Mayor
Patrick Roy - Roi = King

 

[Snap Wilson]

I can start with team Finland. -Nen is irrelevant, means nothing.

You would know more than I do, but I was told it was the equivalent of the Norwegian "son" (or "sson") or Swedish "sen" which means "son of." "Peterson" originally meant "son of Peter," etc.

 

[Snap Wilson]

Nice I was actually thinking about this the other day. What is the Finnish word for son? I always figured that "-nen" simply meant. ____-son, like Johnson (English), Jonsson (Swedish), Jenssen (Norge/Danish) similar to the O'____ (Irish) or Mc and Mac for the Scots.

Whoops, jumped the gun. See that it's already been addressed.

Whomever stated that "nen" is a reference to where the person might be from jibes with what I understand about it.

 

[vitogor]

The Czech translation for Jiri Slegr is "Obstruction:Hooking"

On a serious note, can you Russian experts tell me what Samsonov means(and don't say "Injury Prone" )

Samson is an old Russian name (with origins way back in the Biblical world). So Samsonov is something like "Son of Samson".

 

[Rico Im Ur Fata]

Hmm if there were Chinese NHLers they'd probably feel left out of this thread. Chinese names, taken character by character and put together, don't mean anything at all 99% of the times.

 

[Baron Von Shark]

Wait, I'm surprised no one has asked yet...

What does (Miro) Satan mean in Slovakian?

 

[Slitty]

Kipper's last name is Russian. Really.

Really, how come?






Zhukov... Zhuk = beetle
Ovechkin ... Ovechka = little sheep
Volchenkov... Volchok = little wolf
Korolyuk... Korol' = king
Sushinsky... Susha = (dry) land, sush = dryness
Bykov... Byk = bull
Morozov... Moroz = freezing cold
Mogilny... Mogila = grave, Mogilny would of the grave
Trubachev... Truba = trambone or pipe





Those are a few that come to mind... if anyone has any names that intesrest them in particular, go ahead and ask

 

[Slitty]

is it true that russian middle names have to be the same as your father's first name?? Mihailov Ovechkin (father) = Alexander Mihailovish Ovechkin? does that apply to russian only? or all of the eastern bloc?

Ovechkin's father would be named Mikhail, and Ovechkin's middle name would be Mikhailovich. I believe this applies to most countries with cryllic/slavic language.

 

[kdazzad]

What is the story behind the name Hostikka? I know Tikka is a woodpecker, but why the addition of hos to the tikka?

well here's what Suomalainen Nimikirja says about the name Hostikka. To start with it is a rare name: only 274 people in Finland have this name.

There has been a village called Hostila at Kivennapa, from as early on as the 17th century. A form of this: Hostikka is still used as a housename in Suomennieni and as a village name in Ylämaa (Highland). The origin of the name has not been found. But it is possible that it derives originally from a germanic person name, maybe old scandinavic Hasten, Hosten, or German Hohstein. Perhaps the name is represented by these medival Southeast Häme folk:

Olaf Hoste, born 1466 in Sysmä
kauppi Hoste, 1465, Tuulos
olaf Host ~ HÃ¥sti, 1470
and Jusse Hosti, 1481, Lammi

 

[Sakaarnis]

Latvian
Skrastins - krastins means little bank
OzolinsH(H were added to name in NA when he arrived there) Ozolins means oaklet.

Considering the use of s in most of the latvian man names, reason is our very complex grammar. It was mentioned that all women names ends with a or e. Though there are sove exceptions, like for men Otto, Gvido. Indeed, liek it was mentioned before, Saku Koivu in latvian is Saku Koivu, thats becouse word is in faminine gender and a or e rule apply here. Its hard, realy hard to understand our grammar so the lie that latvians add s to all names just to make em latvian is stupid.

 

[CCCP]

Really, how come?






Zhukov... Zhuk = beetle
Ovechkin ... Ovechka = little sheep
Volchenkov... Volchok = little wolf
Korolyuk... Korol' = king
Sushinsky... Susha = (dry) land, sush = dryness
Bykov... Byk = bull
Morozov... Moroz = freezing cold
Mogilny... Mogila = grave, Mogilny would of the grave
Trubachev... Truba = trambone or pipe





Those are a few that come to mind... if anyone has any names that intesrest them in particular, go ahead and ask

Why don't you translate Zelepukin for us?

 

[v-man]

I think it's only specific to Latvia. ( In Litva (Lithuania) it's -avichus ) Estonian belongs to completely different Ugro-Finnish language group.

Very often Russian people living in Latvia use latvian form of their names

Examle: Sergey Zholtok - Sergeys Zholtoks

Of course there are genuine latvian names... From what I remember there are last names that end not with -s-.

Some group of last names changes depending on gender...

Ozolinsh will be for men and
Ozolinte for women.

It's actually Ozoliņa for women.

While I'm here, may as well translate a few Latvian hockey names:

Peter "Skudra" = ant
Sandis "OzoliņÅ¡" = little oak
Arturs "Irbe" = Partridge

and a few other fun Latvian facts:
our word for beer (alus) is our word of juice backwards.
latvian translation for "sharp knife" = a$$ nazis

 

[e-e]

Wait, I'm surprised no one has asked yet...

What does (Miro) Satan mean in Slovakian?

nothing. it's just a name. u shoul read is a "shatan".

i read few years back that miro satan has a gypsy origin. not sure if its true though

 

[Telperiën]

Rod Brind'amour: Brin = sprig, D'amour = of love

Rod Sprig of Love

 

[mattihp]

i read few years back that miro satan has a gypsy origin. not sure if its true though

He and Teemu should team up and fight racism against romes!

 

[Canuck21t]

Hmm if there were Chinese NHLers they'd probably feel left out of this thread. Chinese names, taken character by character and put together, don't mean anything at all 99% of the times.

The thread is about surnames and most Chinese surnames do mean something. For exemples:

黃 or 黄, Wong in Cantonese, Huang in Mandarin, means sulfur; yellow
張 or 张, Cheung in Cantonese, Zhang in Mandatin, means open up
劉 or 刘, Lau in Cantonese, Liu in Mandarin, means to kill

Too bad I don't know any Chinese hockey players

 

[Canuck21t]

WOW.. English and German are similar languages.

Of course they are, both are West Germanic languages along with Dutch. Danish, Norwegian, Swedish and Islandic are North Germanic languages so I think some of the latter words are similar to English too.

 

[Canuck21t]

Patrice Brisebois = wood breaker
Vincent Lecavalier = the horseman
Mario Lemieux = the better
Simon Gagné = win, winning
Rod Brind'Amour = whit of love
John LeClair = the light or clear
Philippe Boucher = butcher
Alexandre Daigle = from eagle
Mike LeClerc = the cleric
Eric Desjardins = the gardens
Adrian Aucoin = to the corner
Gilbert Brulé = burned
Daniel Paillé = straw
Yanick Lehoux = the gallberry
Jean-Philippe Coté = side
Maxim Lapierre = the stone
Andrew Brunette = brunette

 

[Tiina]

Kipper's last name is Russian. Really.

Kiprusoff`s family is from Karelia between Finland and Russia,the surname is a mix off finnish and russian.
I`m sure that Kipru means something in old Karjala-dialect.

 

[Susanna]

Son in finnish is poika. There are names like Matinpoika, but they are quite rare. -Nen is probably an old way of saying where someone was from. For example a person named Lahtinen might have been from a house or village called Lahti. But I am not an expert in old names, someone should correct me.

I think a lahti is a bay. Something -lainen is usually a nationality reference, i.e. Saksalainen = the German, Ruotsilainen = the Swede

I would loosely translate Antero Niittymäki as Andrew Meadowhill.
Can you tell that I'm a foreign language teacher?

 

[Susanna]

A bit more about Finnish names:

"-nen" ending also diminishes the original word.

ex. given:

Lehti = leaf
Lehtinen = "small leaf"

That sounds like a personal problem to me

 

[Reaper45]

What about Lauri Tukonen, Tuukka Mantyla, Henrik Juntunen, Tuukka Pulliainen, and Valtteri Tenkanen?