When St. Louisans Alyssa and Dan Hoven call out the name of their 3-year-old son in public, the heads around them instinctively turn.
“Oh my God yeah, so many times,” Alyssa said. “If we’re out to eat, we’ll be like, ‘Vladi’ or ‘Vlad,’ and people are like, ‘Did you name him after Vladimir Tarasenko?’ It starts a ton of conversations, and when we tell them ‘Yes, we did,’ they get all excited and scream, ‘Let’s go Blues!'”
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Alyssa is originally from Cleveland, but when she moved to St. Louis and started a family, she instantly became a Blues fan.
“Dan is the biggest hockey fan I have ever met, and our lives soon revolved around hockey,” Alyssa said. “My first NHL game was at Scottrade Center (now named the Enterprise Center), Blues vs. Capitals, and from then on I was hooked. As my love and knowledge of the Blues grew, I started to favor Vladimir Tarasenko. On and off the ice, he just seems like such an amazing and genuine person. While at a Blues game, I told Dan, ‘If we ever have a son, we’re naming him Vladimir. A little Vladi!’”
A few months later, Alyssa and Dan found out that they were pregnant, and on Jan. 27, 2017, 8-pound, 5-ounce Vladimir Hoven was born.
Just like his namesake, Vladimir Tarasenko, who’s always one stride ahead of defenders, little Vladi arrived about a month early, which made for an interesting first Blues game for the newborn. The family had purchased tickets for the game Jan. 31, and billed it as the last night out for the three of them. But since Vladi came ahead of schedule, he went along with them at just four days old, and right on cue, No. 91 netted a goal that night.
“Tarasenko scored and Dan went to cover Vlad’s ears and Vlad just let out a yell at that perfect point in time, and we got a picture of it,” Alyssa said.




The Hovens are well aware that having a son in St. Louis named Vladimir, which is of Russian origin, is pretty peculiar.
“I just love the name, though,” Alyssa said. “It’s just so unique; you don’t hear that here. And everyone that meets my little Vladi, everybody remembers him. No one ever forgets him, because he’s a special kid and his name is Vladimir.”
They had never met Tarasenko and didn’t know if he was aware there was a young Vladi in St. Louis. When he was told this week, he blushed as he listened to the family’s story and flipped through their pictures on a reporter’s cell phone.
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“It means a lot for me,” Tarasenko said. “It makes me feel like I’m doing things right, and this is like a huge step to name a baby after me. I don’t think I have words to describe it. It’s just a great feeling, and thanks to them for doing this. I mean, it’s not really a popular name here, especially in St. Louis, different cultures, so that’s pretty awesome. I want to wish him to stay healthy and just good luck to their family.”
This is not the first time a fan has named their offspring after a Blue. From the expansion roster to the Stanley Cup champions, there have been Barclays, Bernies, Brians, Bretts and Brendans crawling and later running around St. Louis. The Athletic spent the past few months rounding up a few of them, then went to the players to get their thoughts, and like Tarasenko, they call it one of the biggest honors they could ever receive.
Tom and Mary Ann Beekman went to a Blues game on one of their first dates, and when they had their first son, they named him Robert after an uncle. When they had a second son, it wasn’t lost on them that they already had one son who shared a name with one of the three Plager brothers, Bobby, so why not another?
“I came along and they figured it was perfect,” Barclay Beekman said. “My mom was a diehard fan and my dad, too. My mom would tell a story of how she was eight months pregnant, wanting to climb over the glass to yell at the refs. I just think it was something my parents bonded over pretty early in their relationship, so it became a huge part of their lives.”
Barclay Beekman isn’t the lone ‘Barc’ born around that time in St. Louis.
“It’s a strange name, but I meet so many people that come up and say, ‘My name is Barc’ or, ‘I named my son after your brother,'” Bobby Plager said. “One time Barclay and I were standing there, and a guy goes, ‘Barclay, I named my son after you.’ Barclay looks at me and goes, ‘Well, Bob, he’s named after me.’ I said, ‘Barclay, don’t get excited, you know how many Bobbys are in this city?'”
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The Beekmans once met Bobby and Barclay and told them about their kid’s names, along with the fact that they named their dog Billy, the name of the third Plager brother.
Bobby, who remembered the story, did follow through on that.
“I told Billy, ‘There are a lot of kids named Barclay and Bob … but there are a lot of dogs named Billy,'” Plager said.
One of those Bobbys belongs to Mike and Amanda Burgoyne, who named both of their sons after Blues legends. Their firstborn was Bernie, who will be four years old next week, and they also have Bobby, who is a year and a half.
“Amanda and I are lifelong Blues fans — borderline obsession — and pretty much my entire life, I knew my kids would be named after Blues players,” Mike Burgoyne said. “Amanda wasn’t very receptive at first, but after two months of bickering, she knew that’s how it would be. With a last name that starts with the letter ‘B,’ I liked the alliteration, and we had a lot to pick from because every retired number starts with ‘B’ except Al MacInnis. We used Bernie because you could do it if it was a boy or girl.”
Burgoyne’s wife was more receptive when it came time to name their second son, Bobby.
“I think we picked the right names,” he said, “because when they play Hot Wheels, Bernie is more of a finesse Hot Wheels driver, and Bobby just smashes his Hot Wheels into everything, just like his namesake played.”
Mike and Amanda Burgoyne named their sons, Bernie and Bobby, after Blues legends Bernie Federko (center) and Bobby Plager. (Jeremy Rutherford/The Athletic)Federko, who played for the Blues from 1976-89 then played his final season in Detroit, was legitimately surprised to hear that a fan named their little one after him.
“That’s the first time I’ve heard someone named their son Bernie,” he said. “Bernie is not really a popular name of the past or the present. My two older brothers are Ron and Don, and my younger brother is Ken. I would always ask my mother, ‘Where did Bernard come from? It would be much more simple to have a normal name like Ron, Don and Ken, but she said someone brought up the name up to her, she liked it and she went with it.”
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Burgoyne is a police officer in Ballwin, Mo., not far from where Federko lives, and Federko laughed when told that he might have been able to have a speeding ticket forgiven by a fan.
“I wish I would have known about that before,” he said. “I’m in Ballwin all the time, and it’s very possible that he could pull me over.”
In 1981, Brian Meyer’s mother was pregnant and had yet to decide on a name when she went to a Blues game.
“She fell in love with the way Brian Sutter played and wanted her son to be like him — hard worker, leader and not take any crap off anyone,” Meyer said. “That’s when she decided to name me Brian after him.”
In the mid-1990s, Will Stuck was fascinated with the agility of then-Blues goalie Curtis Joseph, and when he and his wife were expecting in 2005, he suggested the name Curran Joseph.
“She liked it!” Stuck said. “It wasn’t until a month or so before my son was born that it clicked. She turned to me and said,’You only suggested this name so that you can call him Cujo!’ I was busted. Fortunately, she still liked the name.”
Today, Curran Joseph Stuck, 13, is a big hockey fan.
“That’s cool!” said Curtis Joseph, who played for the Blues from 1989-95. “Joseph is a good middle name and Cujo is a great nickname, and if somebody can use it, too, that’s awesome!”
Curran Joseph Stuck meets “Cujo,” former Blues goalie Curtis Joseph. (Photo courtesy of Stuck family)No name was more popular in the 1990s, however, than Brett, after Brett Hull.
Brett Ortwerth was the fourth of four boys in his family — “Bless my mother!” he said — when he was born in July 1990. Hull was just coming off a 72-goal season.
“My mom was done naming boys,” Ortwerth said. “She tasked my older brothers with the job. There was a certain ‘Golden Brett’ playing some exceptional hockey for the Note at the time. My brothers idolized him. The rest is history. I am now Brett!”
Brett Lewis is the youngest of three, and his mom was set on either Connor or Cole. But his older brother, Kyle, was pushing for Brett, and when the youngest Lewis was born on Jan. 13, 1993, he got his wish.
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“Kyle was begging my mom and dad to change my name to Brett; his favorite player at the time was no other than Brett Hull,” said Lewis, now 27. “It didn’t take much for my dad to get behind it, and apparently that’s all it took and my mom was all for it!”
When those stories were recently relayed to Hull, he flashed his trademark smile.
“Is that right? That’s crazy,” Hull said. “It’s cool when guys come up to you and say, ‘Hey, my mom told me they named me after you.’ I say, ‘Well, that’s awesome.’ It’s a little weird, but it’s a compliment, right? I mean, I was named after (actor) James Garner — me and my little brother were (named after) Bret and Bart Maverick (from the TV show “Maverick”). I guess you get named after someone, whether it’s a relative or whatever. It is a very big honor.”
Other fan favorites were Brendan Shanahan and Chris Pronger, who of course were swapped for each other in 1995. The trade actually spurned a conversation between a man, Jeff, and a woman, Kelly, who didn’t know each other at the time but eventually married. They had a son on June 9, 1997, and named him Brendan Christopher Henley.
“After the trade (of Shanahan for Pronger), my mother and my father were in an internet chat room together and my dad put out the question, ‘If anyone wants to talk about the Shanahan-Pronger trade,’ and my mom bit on it. They went to a private chat room and the rest became history. I was going to be named after both players whether I was a boy or girl, Brendan Christopher or Brenda Christine.”
Henley, 22, works at a local ice rink, where he met Pronger and told him the story. When asked about it, Pronger, who was the villain in St. Louis when he was acquired for Shanahan, joked that he was thankful to get the middle name.
“At least I was half of that,” Pronger said, laughing. “When I got traded here, everybody’s kid was named Brendan. That’s the passion of fans and what our sport can do. You need passionate fans, and certainly when you’re naming your kid after somebody you watch, you’re as big a fan as it gets.”
Brendan Christopher Henley meets Chris Pronger, whose name was used for his middle name. (Photo courtesy of Henley family).There have been other instances in which fans have combined the names of two Blues, including one featuring Shanahan and former Blues enforcer Kelly Chase.
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“My son’s name is Brendan Chase,” said Bill Hammock. “I became a big Shanny fan after watching him get high-sticked in the mouth by (Keith) Tkachuk. He gets stitches, scores two goals and fought Tkachuk. The crazy part is my son was born with a cleft lip and has a scar just like Shanny.”
The younger Hammock was born on Sept. 8, 1997, and though Shanahan had left St. Louis by then and Chase was in the twilight of his career, he became a Blues fan and later learned of the significance of his name.
“I thought that was neat,” Hammock said. “I was too young to watch them play, but my dad had pictures of them on the walls and pieces of paper signed by them. It made me a Blues fan, and I wanted to watch them after I found that out.”
The younger Hammock has never met Shanahan, but years ago did cross paths with Chase, and last Christmas received a retro Chase sweater from his parents.
“There are a lot more Bretts and Brendans than Kellys, I can assure you that,” Chase said. “They normally name their dogs or their horses or they’re mules or jackasses … they named them (Tony) Twist and Chase. We took more of the biker crowd.”
Brendan Chase Hammock poses with his Kelly Chase sweater in front of pictures of Brendan Shanahan and Chase. (Photo courtesy of Hammock family)There were lesser-known Blues along the way, such as Ian and Shayne, and true Blues fans will know who these fans were named after even before hearing the players’ last name.
Don Harris decided on Ian after latching onto Ian Laperriere’s style of play for the Blues from 1993-95. He even followed Laperriere’s career after he left St. Louis, and when his son was born 13 years later on April 25, 2008, he named him Ian.
“Lappy was a no-nonsense, lunch pail-carrying kind of player,” Harris said. “His gritty style endeared him to me instantly his rookie year. My son would be born many years after Laperriere’s Blues tenure was over, (but) there was no doubt my firstborn would be named Ian. As luck would have it, Ian was born during a Red Wings-Avalanche playoff series, so I am holding Ian in my arms in our hospital room while showing him who his namesake (who was playing for the Avalanche) is on TV. As I am telling him, Laperriere scores a very rare playoff goal, and I am yelling at the TV in astonishment, scaring the staff and Ian’s mom. To this day, my son always asks me to tell him stories about Laperriere and why I chose him.”
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Laperriere, now an assistant coach in Philadelphia, got a kick out of hearing that.
“Wow, that’s a great story. I love that,” he said. “I’ve heard about cats and dogs, but I’ve never heard a boy. It’s flattering that mom and dad liked the way that I play when I played there a long time ago. It was 25 years ago, that’s crazy! It’s a nice name, though, isn’t it? No, it’s a great honor that parents are naming their kids after the way I did my job.”
Shayne Elbert, 23, was named after Shayne Corson, who played parts of two seasons with the Blues in 1995 and ’96 and was briefly the captain. Unfortunately for Elbert, Corson didn’t stay as long as Laperriere; he was traded to Montreal in October 1996.
“My parents are big Blues fans, and they liked the name Shayne,” Elbert said. “I was born on Oct. 15th, 1996, and he was traded exactly two weeks later on Oct. 29th. I have his jersey now, though, so it’s a good conversation starter.”
A few years later, Kevin Nieweglowski liked the way Barret Jackman played when he broke into the NHL, and along with wife, Dana, tossed around the name Barrett (with two T’s).
“I liked that physicality that he had,” Nieweglowski said.
Their son was born on Dec. 26, 2006, about a month early, so they weren’t prepared to make a final decision. After a couple of hours not having a name for him, they stuck with Barrett.
Now 13 years old, their Barrett has met the Blues’ Barret twice, once before his first birthday and later when he was about 10.
“The one where he’s crying was one of the season-ticket-holder events,” Nieweglowski said. “Jackman showed up late and they said no photos, but there were only 10 of us in line, so I said, ‘Hey, we named him Barrett after you.’ He’s like, ‘That’s cool!’ I said, ‘Do you mind getting a photo,’ and as soon as I handed him over to Barret, my son just started bawling.”
Barrett Nieweglowski meets the Blues’ Barret Jackman before his first birthday. (Photo courtesy of Nieweglowski family).The second time was at a Blues alumni game.
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“He came out and I showed him the first picture,” Nieweglowski said. “He looked at it and laughed. He said, ‘That’s a good one right there!’ He’s always been a nice guy.”

“A lot of these kids are 10-16 years old, it’s cool to see them,” Jackman said. “When you hear somebody say the name Barret, you turn your head around and all of a sudden there’s a kid standing there that has the same name. It’s special that somebody thinks enough about you and about your name that they want to pass that on to their kid.”
The current Blues roster has ignited another wave of names, even before the club won the Stanley Cup.
Curt Hale and his wife, Sarah, named their son Alexander after Alexander Steen following a chance encounter at a Blues game on Feb. 5, 2009. The two had known each other previously but weren’t dating and didn’t even know each other was at the rink.
“Steen had been on the receiving end of a roughing penalty in a game against Edmonton,” Hale said. “We were exchanging texts, and I was explaining what roughing was, and we came to find out we were both at the game and ended up sitting together and catching up. We wound up marrying nine months later, and when it came time to pick a name for our first son, it was an easy decision. Had Steen not been roughed up, who knows what happens?”
In 2011, when young Alexander Hale was just six months old, the couple took him to a Blues game and Steen was standing right in front of them during pregame warm-ups. He turned and acknowledged young Alexander when the couple hollered out that he was named after him.
“That’s cool, that’s a great story,” Steen said. “It’s fun when you’re able to inspire or be a part of the community in that way. You’re excited about stuff like that. It’s why we do what we do.”
Ty Cochran wanted to name his son after a Blues player and got his wish with Jaden, after Jaden Schwartz, but he was a little sneaky about it.
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“One night my wife was reading a book about pregnancy and I was watching the Blues game,” Cochran said. “She asked what we were going to name our son. I jokingly said Vladimir, and she said, ‘No.’ Then Schwartz got the puck and I said, ‘What about Jaden?’ She liked it.
“Then a few months later, when I said my cousin is going to love the name, she asked, ‘Why?’ I said, ‘That’s his favorite player, Jaden Schwartz.’ She said, ‘You named our kid after a Blues player?’ She laughed at me and shook her head.”
Today, Jaden Cochran is five years old, and “he loves watching Schwartz play,” Cochran said. “He still says, ‘Dad, I scored’ whenever Schwartz scores.”
And now with the Blues winning the franchise’s first-ever Stanley Cup, the number of players’ names being used is multiplying.
On Aug. 25, 2019, two months after the team’s Game 7 victory in Boston, Steven James welcomed a son, “Colton Stanley” James.
“My wife told me we could name our son after the Stanley Cup if we won,” James said.
The Blues’ Colton Parayko said the name had a nice ring to it with Stanley included.
“That’s even better,” Parayko said. “Looking at the picture, he’s a cute little fellow, and it would be cool to meet him one day. It just goes to show how passionate these fans are here in St. Louis. It’s pretty amazing, the relationship we have with the city. We could have a bunch of different ‘teammates’ running around St. Louis with our names.”
Ryan O’Reilly is another one with a local fan named after him.
Dan and Rachel Gordon didn’t know if they were having a girl or a boy and had settled on Zoey Rae for a girl and Finn Patrick for a boy. Then they went to a local bar for Game 7 of the Stanley Cup final against Boston — Rachel was seven months pregnant and obviously not drinking — and everything changed.
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“Dan said, ‘If Ryan O’Reilly wins the Conn Smythe, we should put Reilly as the middle name,'” Rachel said. “I said, ‘OK, that works for a boy or a girl, so that’s perfect. So I posted all over Facebook, ‘Hey, this is going to happen if he wins!'”

Indeed, O’Reilly ended up winning the Conn Smythe Trophy as the playoff MVP.
“Everybody was like, ‘Baby Reilly!'” Rachel said. “It was the most beautiful moment.”
Here’s the video …
Then next day, Rachel had second thoughts about Zoey Reilly, so she asked her husband about Reilly as the first name, and they’d come up with a new middle name.
“He was like, ‘Yeah, let’s change it to Reilly,'” Rachel said.
On Sept. 18, 2019, Reilly Grace Gordon was born.
After the Blues returned home from Boston, Ryan O’Reilly did an appearance at a local department store and Rachel said she had to go. She bought a Blues T-shirt and customized the front of it.
“If you look at the picture, I just put blue Scotch tape on it, marked on it ‘Baby Reilly,’ and put the tape across my belly,” Rachel said.
Rachel Gordon, who is pregnant with daughter Reilly Grace, poses with Blues center Ryan O’Reilly. (Photo courtesy of Gordon family)O’Reilly admitted that down the road it will be “cool” to know there is a girl in St. Louis named after him.
“Yeah, for us, it’s playing a sport and doing what we love, and we’re fortunate to have (this) job,” he said. “And to be able to have people care that much about it and take a liking to it, it’s definitely something that hits the heart and it’s something that’s really nice.”
From the past to the present, it’s a connection that both fans and players will always cherish.
“You’ve got to think of the kids growing up, ‘How did I get my name Barclay?'” Bobby Plager said. “You tell them, ‘Well, you were named after Barclay Plager.’ And if they go look him up, their chest will come out a little farther because it’s special.”
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“As an athlete, I don’t think we really realize how special people sometimes think of what we do,” Federko said. “They become really big fans of ours, and I think we overlook it sometimes. We are in the public eye and people do really look to us. I guess that’s the ultimate compliment, if you have someone that’s watching you who thinks enough of you that they want to name their child after you. It’s truly an honor to have someone think that way.”
“And you’re going to see a lot more O’Reillys and Braydens and Alexs, stuff like that, in the future,” Chase said. “When we were naming our kids, we thought about people we knew who had the named we liked, but also had character. That’s how it works.”
(Top photo of Colton Stanley James courtesy of James family)
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