Admin Victor 10,614 Posted February 12 Admin Share Posted February 12 Hello and welcome to one of my most unhinged projects yet. I have scoured through the VHL archives to identify every single instance of a repeated last name in history, the sole criterion being that the players made it to the VHL (i.e. VHLM and/or VHLE lifers are excluded). This also means that whilst the list includes all active VHL players as of S92, it doesn't include anyone who is about to come up to the big leagues or has announced their draft eligibility. 268 repeat last names were identified throughout VHL history and then sorted to identify the most common last name in the VHL's storied past. But since the work was done to identify each name, I will make it a countdown from names used twice all the way to the all-time leader at 12. Behold. Names used 2x in VHL history 188 names have appeared twice in the past and whilst the list is copied in below, I won't dwell on it for too long. This section contains Hall of Famers and completely forgotten journeymen, it has brothers, fathers and sons, and even families separated by multiple generations. Most frequently, it contains completely random and coincidental repeats, separated by as many as 90 seasons. There are two facts of most interest in this category: Two names have a 100% Hall of Fame success rate – Sterling (father) and Alexander (son) Labatte, as well as the Clegane brothers There has twice been a pair of Mario and Luigi in the VHL – the Linguinis and the De Rossis Spoiler Adrienne 2 Condor, Micah Allen 2 Bobby, Jim Andersson 2 Josef, Nils Archer 2 Jack, Sterling Athera 2 Theseus, Troy Axelsson 2 Otto, Theo Bailey 2 Kronos, Matt Baillie 2 Dan, Dan Jr Banks 2 Cody, Robin Barabash 2 Tayson, Tyler Bentley 2 Gus, Matt Blaze 2 Jeff, Johnny Block 2 Cinnamon, Joe Boucher 2 Bobby, Joey Boulet 2 Scott, Scott 2 Braun 2 Kasey, Lloyd Bridges 2 Alex, Alex III Brooks 2 Kevin, Kevin 2 Burns 2 Cobalt, Montgomery Busser 2 Ryan, Tyler Callahan 2 Harry, John Chara 2 Zdeno, Zeedayno Chershenko 2 Alexander, Nikolai Clegane 2 Greg, Sandro Cole 2 Justin, Kendrick Conway 2 Cal, Charlie Dan 2 Dan, Squirrely Daniels 2 Dougie, PJ Davidson 2 Alexander, Cameron De Rossi 2 Luigi, Mario Detroit 2 Nevets, Vinny Dixon 2 Daryl, Mason Draper 2 Don, Don 2 Dubnikov 2 Andrei, Pavel Dynamite 2 JJ, Napoleon Eldred 2 Edward, Edward 2 Elsby 2 Cameron, Spencer Encarnacion 2 Edwin, Edwin THE Eriksson 2 Derek, Paul Ernst 2 Frederik, Kyle Esposito 2 Geno, Larry Faux 2 Bronson, Marcel Fizzlebeef 2 Roll, Roll Jr Fletcher 2 Matt, Michael Foley 2 Chris, Logan Francis 2 Kevin, Pope Frostbeard 2 John, Marshall James Gaudette 2 Blake, Pierre Gegeny 2 Alex x2 Glover 2 Benjamin, Teagan Goncalves 2 Catia, Leandro Graves 2 Alistar, Benny Gunnarsson 2 Matthew, Thorvald Gutzwiler 2 Gabriel, Leon Guy 2 A Red, Bald Hackett 2 Apollo, Saul Hampton 2 Fred, Nick Harris 2 Adam, Mikey Hart 2 Kevin, Pekka Heidt 2 Erich, Layken Heisten 2 Barrett, Jason Henchoz 2 Germano, Marius Hextall 2 Jack, Jaxx Hickey 2 Austin, Austin V Hill 2 Aaron, Jaime Hudson 2 Mack, Penis Anthony Hyvarinen 2 Kerkko, Marquis Ironside 2 Sebastian, Torstein Janssen 2 Brad, Willem Jensen 2 Soren, Viktor Johansson 2 Arvid, Bo Johnston 2 Alex, Moose Julien 2 Chris, Cris Kaberle 2 Miklos, Scotty Kachur 2 Alex, Alexander Kamkar 2 Bahram, Javad Kane 2 Ko, Kyle Karlsson 2 Morgan, Nicklas Keller 2 Chase, Oscar Kelly 2 Joe, Malcolm Kennedy 2 Augustus, Thomas Kliment 2 Ilya, Vladimir Kopralkov 2 Grigory, Ilya Kovalchuk 2 Maxim, Mikhail Kowalski 2 Brian, Jack Laaksonen 2 Antti, Luukas Labatte 2 Alexander, Sterling Lafontaine 2 Andreas, Jacques Lamb 2 Dakota, Lamb Lebedev 2 Nikita, Nikolai Leblanc 2 Brandon, Marc-Alexandre Lefevre 2 James, Noah Lehtinen 2 Teemu, Teemu Jr Letang 2 Alan, Alex Lindemann 2 Franz, Till Linguini 2 Luigi, Mario Low 2 Conner, Kevin Lynch 2 Jack, Shane MacTavish 2 Blake, Soap Man 2 Florida, X Mann 2 DeFenz, Hockley Marino 2 Ignacio, James Martin 2 Aston, Sam Martucci 2 Claudio, Roberto Mason 2 Jack, W.B. Maxwell 2 Brandon, Diana McCreath 2 Adrian x2 McSexington 2 Sexy x2 Mexico 2 Ookie, Ron Mikaelson 2 Kol, Niklaus Miklavz 2 Anze, Drazen Minion 2 Alexander, Nathaniel Mitchell 2 Latrell, Pete Morgan 2 Dexter, Francis York Morozov 2 Ivan, Valeri Murphy 2 Alexander, Chad Nano 2 Alessandro, Paolo Nygren 2 Lucas, Marcus O'Neal 2 Da'Brickashaw, Jartavious Odinson 2 Jeff, Thor Olsen 2 Jarkko, Karsten Orosz 2 Chris, Christopher Pajari 2 Mikka, Rauno Parise 2 Alex, Zach Payne 2 Brian, Peter Pereira 2 Celise, John Perrin 2 Seabass, Sebastien Perry 2 Jacob, Nathan Philliefan 2 Jackson, Jagger Poremba 2 John, John Jr Price 2 Ryan, Thomas Reed 2 Fulton, Joseph Reikkinen 2 Sven, Tukka Reingaard 2 Leif, Thor Rice 2 Kris, Mason Rift 2 JB, Skylar Roberts 2 Kai, Landon Rodriguez 2 Aleksander, Felipe Roux 2 Noel, Noel Jr Rush 2 Brandon, Gary Rust 2 Chance, Deagun Ryan 2 Jack, Jimmy Sanderson 2 George, Lenny Sandstrom 2 Battre, Onde Schenn 2 Jordan, Phil Schneider 2 Danny, Doug Schultz 2 Adam, Marek Sharpe 2 Motherfucker, Robert Shaw 2 Aidan, Dabnad Skokan 2 Ondrej, Ondrej Jr Slade 2 Jonathan, Orion Snelheid 2 Braden, Branden Sound 2 Jack, Zack Stansson 2 Wolf, Wolf Jr Stark 2 Ambrose, Tony Steele 2 Damian, Nathan Stein 2 Philip, Wolfgang Stokes 2 Alex, Tyson Stone 2 Chip, Jacob Strong 2 Brian, Brian Jr Stropko 2 Brady, Brady Jr Stryker 2 Dominik, Jaeger Styles 2 Jason, Johnny Summers 2 Erik, Lachlan Svoboda 2 Pat, Vojczek Szatkowski 2 Mike, Mike Jr Tallinder 2 Nils, Patrick Tarantino 2 Gary, Gary II Tate 2 Jordan, Lincoln Taylor 2 Kameron, Owen Telker 2 Brendan, Nate Thompson 2 Matt, Troy Toews 2 Patrick, Tyler Tonn 2 Jacob, Jordan Trunov 2 Bogdan, Yaroslav Tucker 2 Henry, Henry Jr Vassell 2 Tyler x2 Vega 2 Mikhail, Vincent Vengeance 2 Johnny, Zacky Volkov 2 Luca, Vadim Wallace 2 Fraser, Trevor Walser 2 Christoph, Jochen Watson 2 Alex, Emma Weinstein 2 Ariel, Max Winters 2 Jordan, Matt Yu 2 Alvin, Fook Zhumbayev 2 Anatoli, Artom Ziegler 2 Thomas, Tomas Names used 3x in VHL history 55 more names added to the list in this category which doesn't really have any fun tidbits to pull out – seems to be a higher proportion of recognisable names than in the first section. What this exercise has been actually helpful in is identifying some duplicates I had in the all-time stats spreadsheet from the 60s. Not sure how those happened but they're gone now. Perhaps one other thing worth mentioning is that in addition to the two Ryans in the above 2x list, there was also a man simply named Ryan in the VHL at one point. Unfortunately that Ryan counts as someone with a last name so the Ryans do not manage to make the cut for the 3x list. Spoiler Arsenault 3 Chris, Jon, Michael Ball 3 Lavar, Sebastian, Sebastian Jr Bob 3 Baby, Bobby, Jim Braxton 3 Daniel, Atticus III, Atticus IV Brown 3 Andrew, Timothy, Tommy Campbell 3 Blake, Isabella, Scotty Cobberson 3 David, Hendrix, Lorenzo Crosby 3 Chase, Sidney, Zach Dawson 3 Lewis, Phoenix, Riley Evans 3 Connor, Derek, Nicholas Forsberg 3 Elias, Filip, Mattias Gagnon 3 Lukas, Zack, Zack II Gaming 3 Green, Legacy, Red Garcia 3 Fernando, Fernando Jr, Jerry Glade 3 Shawn, Shawn Jr, Shawn III Glass 3 Gregory, Kyle, Legacy Green 3 Ben, Lester, Pavel Hogan 3 Hulk, Hulk 2, Hulk Jr Jackson 3 Jefferson, PJ, Percy Janser 3 Callum Gary Yannick, Daniel, Marcel Jenkins 3 Conrad, Leeroy, LeRoy Jonsson 3 Baron, Grimm, Mikael Khan 3 Genghis, Genghis II, Sarmad Kisslinger 3 King, Zach, Zachariah Laine 3 Patrik, Sebastian x2 Landry 3 Brodie III, Thomas, Thomas II Larsson 3 Alf, Henrik, Miles Louth 3 Beau, Brock, Keaton Martinez 3 Juan, Xavier, Zack McFleury 3 Oreo, Reese, Skor Moreau 3 Aurelien, Brian, Remy Mueller 3 Kriztof, Marek, Patrick Muller 3 Izaak, Lukas, Shawn Odinsson 3 Gunnar, Thor, Vaydar Peace 3 Kyle, Ron, Rylan Pearce 3 Calix, Cole, Nico Power 3 Kelly, M.T., Wattson Rose 3 Hex, James, Jory Ruutu 3 Jarmo, Jorma, Teuvo Samuelsson 3 Borje, Jeevan, Olof Schwarz 3 Guido Esq., Ryan, Torsten Shirokov 3 DMatousz, Matousz, Petr Singh 3 Astro, Harvey, Japinder Stafford 3 JJ, RJ, SJ Strauss 3 Leo, Markus, Wolfgang Sullivan 3 James, Ryan, Ryan Jr Thunder 3 Jake, Lupus, Matt Valiq 3 Alexander, Niklas, Tomas Voss 3 Hammar, Zach x2 Wahl 3 Bennett, Brick, Brick II Walker 3 Carson, Jaxon, Tyler Webber 3 Jon, Jon Jr, Paul White 3 Eric Jr, Jason, Todd Wolf 3 Bruno, Declan, Sven Wolfe 3 Damien, Damon, Denver The Top 24 We are now in the top end of the ranking, as at 4 appearances each, the pool dwindles considerably. There are 13 names which show up exactly 4 times: The Bakers (Abel, Joseph, Patrick, and Shane) The Carters (Alex, Donny, Jared and Jared the 2st (sic)) The Clarkes (Daniel, Dean, Jon, and Will) – two of whom, Dean and Will, are unrelated but were both of the cup-winning S70 Moscow squad The Downeys (Bahr, Jeff (both the S1 and much more successful S68 incarnation) and the original Jeff's brother Ryan) The Eagles (two Gregs, Henry, and Tom) – brought to us exclusively by @Greg_Di. Greg Eagleowski sadly doesn't make the cut. The Funks (brothers and Builders Dust'n and Raymond and decades later playoff hero Rayz and the less notable Frank Jr) The Kings (Kevin, Markus, Roctrion, and Thomas) The Komarovs (Evgeni, Pavel, Sergei, and Vladamir) – also the sole work of one man, @Gooningitup The Matthews (Anthony, Luke, Mitchell, and Wesley) The Millers (Alec, Jackson, MF Percy, and Nicholas) The Syndergaards (two Aksels, Thomas, and Tomas) The Williams (AJ, Justin, Robinson, and Tyrone) and the Youngs (Alex, Christopher, Naomi, and Zachary) 5 names then, fittingly, show up 5 times over the years: Davis (David, Finn, Jake, Jasper, and Roque) – almost entirely hauled up the list by @Josh's obsession with the name Hamilton (brothers Phil, Jeff, and David (Phil and Jeff making the Hall) and also the lesser-known Drew and Josh) Knight (Blake, David, Jordan, Ricky, Steven) – remarkably only once used by either @Phil or David @Knight – the actual Knight brothers choosing to be Hamilton brothers in the VHL instead Reinhart (Asher, Jerome, Reylynn, Tobias, and Tyler all being prominent in the 80s) Tremblay (Dan, Danny, Pierre-Marc, Steve and the man himself (not really), Simon Tremblay) Then in joint fifth place... 6 Hunters (Alyksander, Blade, Braxton, JaKobe, Jeff, and Kurtis) 6 Jokinens (Alvaro, David, Diego, Erlantz, Fabio, and Fernando) – courtesy of the Finnish fiends @Ahma and @jRuutu 6 Smiths (Cody, Jacob, Josh, Lucas, Steve, and Trevor) – all extremely forgettable just like the name In joint third place we have the Wilsons (Aaron, Al, Connor, Dusty, Jesse, Josh, and Wade), 7 completely unrelated and largely irrelevant players, and the Gow brothers (@Fire Tortorella and @eaglesfan036) who have brought 7 Gows (Austin, Bernie, Jeff, Jim, Robert III, Robin, and Shayne) to the VHL before branching off into more creative names. Jones is the second most popular last name in VHL history with 9 players (Bob, Casey, Dallas, Dan, Davey, Jay, Kered, Mason, and Ty) over the years. Davey Jones as part of the 30s Dynamo and Casey Jones who had a Labatte-winning rookie season in S57 and then was part of the USA's most prolific World Cup years are easily the most successful of the Joneses. Clear at the top it's the Johnsons though – 12 of them specifically. We've had Bossman, Brent, Gabrial, Gabriel, Kobe, Leroy, Michael, Miles, Phil “The Rock”, Regie, Reid, and Ricky. Yes I was also hoping for a more impressive list but Michael and Phil have definitely elevated the Johnsons' profile in more recent season and Kobe is active in the VHL as we speak. Will anyone catch them? Only time will tell. Triller, CowboyinAmerica, eaglesfan036 and 12 others 11 3 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AJW 1,860 Posted February 12 Share Posted February 12 Didn’t even know I was part of a Williams family, cool stuff! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Admin Victor 10,614 Posted February 12 Author Admin Share Posted February 12 1 minute ago, AJW said: Didn’t even know I was part of a Williams family, cool stuff! brothers from different mothers I think it's fair to say AJW 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eaglesfan036 4,585 Posted February 12 Share Posted February 12 @Victoryou forgot about Tim TebowGow Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hogan 1,360 Posted February 12 Share Posted February 12 Unbelievable @Victor. You forgot 0 tpe undrafted player Danielle Hogan of the season 24 draft! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Admin Victor 10,614 Posted February 12 Author Admin Share Posted February 12 16 minutes ago, eaglesfan036 said: @Victoryou forgot about Tim TebowGow very clearly a separate name 5 minutes ago, Hogan said: Unbelievable @Victor. You forgot 0 tpe undrafted player Danielle Hogan of the season 24 draft! "the sole criterion being that the players made it to the VHL" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hogan 1,360 Posted February 12 Share Posted February 12 2 minutes ago, Victor said: very clearly a separate name "the sole criterion being that the players made it to the VHL" Made it in my heart Victor 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ahma 1,307 Posted February 12 Share Posted February 12 Jokinen STRONG! @jRuutu jRuutu 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rory 1,781 Posted February 12 Share Posted February 12 i can't wait to recreate as MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM WWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW! Daniel Janser, Gaikoku-hito, tcookie and 1 other 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gustav 6,177 Posted February 13 Share Posted February 13 We could have seen both Taro and Tarro Tsujimoto if the latter had made it up. I’ve always been super anti-“let’s make players who are related,” even more so as a GM and even more so than that when people insisted on playing with each other. It’s interesting that the list has lots of people on it who are there both accidentally and on purpose—and even more interesting IMO that the top 2 were by accident. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daniel Janser 2,013 Posted February 13 Share Posted February 13 5 minutes ago, Gustav said: and even more interesting IMO that the top 2 were by accident. I claim that there are a lot of Shadowrun players and the customers in Seattle are only ever referred to as 'Johnson' Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scoop 3,276 Posted February 13 Share Posted February 13 Am I blind, or where are the Staffords? Surely RJ wasn't the only one that made it to the VHL? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Admin Victor 10,614 Posted February 13 Author Admin Share Posted February 13 21 minutes ago, scoop said: Am I blind, or where are the Staffords? Surely RJ wasn't the only one that made it to the VHL? in the 3x list. two of them didn't make it Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scoop 3,276 Posted February 13 Share Posted February 13 1 hour ago, Victor said: in the 3x list. two of them didn't make it Ah, I completely missed that list. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fire Tortorella 2,653 Posted February 14 Share Posted February 14 @eaglesfan036 you know what to do Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dlamb 1,308 Posted February 14 Share Posted February 14 On 2/12/2024 at 12:38 PM, Victor said: Lamb 2 Dakota, Lamb LAMB LAMB THE GOAT Victor 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Garsh 1,100 Posted February 14 Share Posted February 14 3 hours ago, dlamb said: LAMB LAMB THE GOAT Lambs aren't goats, they are sheep smh. Victor and rory 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daniel Janser 2,013 Posted February 14 Share Posted February 14 3 hours ago, Garsh said: Lambs aren't goats, they are sheep smh. no KIDding... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JCarson 623 Posted February 15 Share Posted February 15 Article Review, everyone needs a pet project and why not have that be looking at name repetition in the VHL. I am not sure your research will change the way we view the VHL or how we build players in the future but it is fun and I like it. Keep up the great work, we all need to do something strange once in a while and why not have it link to the VHL community. If you have more time to spend doing something of little to no value but is odd and wacky then could you find out how many players name themselves after animals or even just living things. I give this article a 10/10 for fun. Victor 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rhynex Entertainment 460 Posted February 19 Share Posted February 19 Review: Wow! Great read! I've always wondered about the "family" lineage of all the VHL players, now I have a place to look them up I got a little bit confused when you wrote Top 24, but understood it afterwards Great use of "Hidden Content" feature to help minimize a huge list of names. I wonder if there's going to be someone who only uses the same name and only the same name in the future? Easy to read, good spacing. Great use of tags to provide recognition to users. 10/10 Victor 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Admin Victor 10,614 Posted February 19 Author Admin Share Posted February 19 Week 2 of 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Admin Victor 10,614 Posted February 26 Author Admin Share Posted February 26 Week 3 of 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Admin Victor 10,614 Posted March 4 Author Admin Share Posted March 4 Week 4 of 4 Ahma 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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