Fun with French

Middle school, early 1990s. That's when I began playing ice hockey and following the NHL. It's also when I began studying French in school. And it wasn't long before the two came together. Here's how:

After months of vocabulary lessons and hockey card collecting, I began to notice that certain French-Canadian hockey players had surnames that actually meant something in the language. Sometimes the name described a trade or skill, other times a geographic location, and still other times an appealing characteristic of some sort.

It shouldn't have surprised me. This kind of thing occurs in most cultures. Think about English-language surnames like Baker (trade), Meadows (geographical), or Young (characteristic). Maybe the adolescent version of me was just excited that he was applying the French language to something he enjoyed outside of the classroom.

In any case, as my knowledge of hockey players grew, so did the name recognition. Now that I've got a blog, (and now that hockey season is here), I thought it would be fun to bring trading cards into the equation. 

So, here's a list of NHL players, past and present, with French-Canadian names that hold meaning. I've included the full name, the English translation, and a trading card to represent each player. It's not an exhaustive list by any means, but it still makes for fun reading. 

Here are the players, in alphabetical order:

(Note that it's been quite a while since I've studied French, so I leaned on Google Translate, which often provides translations that are rather literal and clunky. In those cases, I dug a little deeper in order to come up with something more elegant. If you speak French and you've got an even better suggestion for any of the names, by all means add it in the comment section.)

 Francois Beauchemin

 (beau = beautiful or good; chemin = path or road)

Francois Good Road

 

 J.P. Bordeleau

(bord de l'eau = edge of the water, or waterside)

J.P. Waterside 

Philippe Boucher

(boucher = butcher)

Philippe Butcher

 

Rod Brind'Amour

(brin d'amour = sprig of love)

Rod Sprig of Love

 

Patrice Brisebois

(briser = to break or smash; bois = wood)

Patrice Smash Wood

 

Martin Brodeur

(brodeur = embroiderer)

Martin Embroiderer

Yvan Cournoyer

(cour = court, yard, or garden; noyer = walnut)

Yvan Walnut Garden

 

Jason Demers

(de mers = of seas)

Jason of Seas

 

Eric Desjardins

(des jardins = of the gardens)

Eric of the Gardens

 

Nicolas Deslauriers

(des lauriers = of the laurels)

Nicolas of the Laurels

Matt Duchene

(du chene = of the oak)

Matt of the Oak

 

Jean-Pierre Dumont

(du mont = of the mountain)

Jean-Pierre of the Mountain

 

Andre Dupont

(du pont = from the bridge)

Andre from the Bridge

 

Simon Gagne

(gagner = to win)

Simon Wins

Randy Ladouceur
(la douceur = the softness, smoothness, sweetness)

Randy the Sweetness

 

Guy Lafleur

(la fleur = the flower)

Guy the Flower 

 

Pat LaFontaine

(la fontaine = the fountain)

Pat the Fountain 

 

Pete Laframboise

(la framboise = the raspberry)

Pete the Raspberry

 

Guy Lapointe

(la pointe = the point, tip, or spear)

Guy the Spear

 

Stephan Lebeau

(le beau = the handsome)

Stephan the Handsome

 

Vincent Lecavalier

(le cavalier = the horseman)

Vincent the Horseman

 

John Leclair

(le clair = the clear, bright, or fair)

John the Clear

 

Rich Leduc

(le duc = the duke)

Rich the Duke

 

Jacques Lemaire

(le maire = the mayor)

Jacques the Mayor 

Mario Lemieux

(le mieux = the best)

Mario the Best

And there's the list. Pretty good name to end on, right?

Can you think of any additional French-Canadian hockey names that I missed? Any French speakers out there with a better translation for some of these names? Let me know in the comment section.

Thank you for reading, as always. (And thank you to Google for a few of these images.)