Baby names from hockey

A reader named Elizabeth has sent me a rather cool list of hockey-inspired baby names. She writes:

I’m a name enthusiast and a hockey fanatic, and my husband and I have been tossing around the idea of naming our son after hockey players.

They haven’t seen any lists of hockey names for babies, though, so they decided to compile one themselves. It includes “both all-time greats and current players.”

I thought I’d pass it along to share with fellow rink rats who may be reading your blog and can’t think of anything other than Wayne (Gretzky), Herb (Brooks), or Patrick (Roy).

Here’s their list:

• Andreas (Andreas Lilja, Andreas Nödl)
• Aurèle (Aurèle Émile Joliat)
• Bentley (Max Bentley, Doug Bentley)
• Bourque (Ray Bourque, Rene Bourque)
• Briere (Danny Briere)
• Brooks (Herb Brooks, Brooks Laich)
• Crosby (Sidney Crosby)
• Dryden (Ken Dryden)
• Eaves (Patrick Eaves)
• Elias (Patrik Elias)
• Émile (Aurèle Émile Joliat)
• Ennis (Tyler Ennis)
• Evgeni (Evgeni Malkin, Evgeni Nabokov)
• Ilya (Ilya Kovalchuk, Ilya Bryzgalov)
• Kane (Patrick Kane)
• Lach (Elmer Lach)
• Lemieux (Mario Lemieux)
• Luca (Luca Caputi)
• Malkin (Evgeni Malkin)
• Malone (Joe Malone, Ryan Malone)
• Marek (Marek Svatos)
• Mario (Mario Lemieux)
• Marleau (Patrick Marleau)
• Michal (Michal Handzus)
• Milan (Milan Hejduk)
• Modano (Mike Modano)
• Nikolai (Nikolai Khabibulin)
• Parise (Zach Parise)
• Pavel (Pavel Datsyuk)
• Rene (Rene Bourque)
• Savard (Serge Savard, Marc Savard)
• Shore (Eddie Shore)
• Stephane (Stephane Yelle)
• Turco (Marty Turco)

Thanks so much for sharing, Elizabeth!

Another good source of hockey names is the Legends of Hockey website, which is affiliated with the Hockey Hall of Fame.

Which hockey names are your favorites?

Update, Feb. 2024: Since publishing this list, I’ve written a few posts featuring hockey players: Jaromír Jágr, Sidney Crosby, and P. K. Subban.