Mystery solved, it's Oveja-kin

Believe it or not, but Gus Portokalos can be wrong too. He said, "the root of the name Ovechkin is a Greek word Ovechka, which means a little lamb, or sheep".



The word Ovechka is diminitive of Ovtsa (Овца), which is of Latin/Spanish origin and in Spanish it is... (drum roll...) Oveja.

In fact there are quite a lot of Latin/Spanish words in Russian language, such as библиотека - biblioteca (library), ночь - noche (night) and so on.

Ta da! Thanks for the reader's (cordobes17) comment at

Heavy Metal blog:

Say goodbye to the Wild Sheep Skates! Maybe...

Alex Ovechkin, whose painted blades have been the talk of the Olympic hockey tournament, has said after the Friday morning practice that due to some unspecified damage to one of them, he will go back to his old gear. Too bad. The new skates featured an image of a rabid sheep with a missing tooth. Ovechkin's last name is derived from the Russian word "ovechka", which means "little sheep," and his nickname among Russian teammates is and always has been "Ovtsa," or "sheep."

Unless the skates can be fixed quickly, we may not see this particularly bad-mannered farm animal on Ovie's feet any time soon.

So, it was less sheepishness but quite the usual amount of rabid at the Britannia Rink on Friday. The Russians finished up the practice with a shootout challenge, as all the players took turns trying to score on Semyon Varlamov. Ovechkin and the ex-Cap Viktor Kozlov were among the last to solve the young goaltender and Ovie was taking his misfortune pretty hard. In one episode, he had Varlamov beaten only to hit the goalpost, and this prompted Ovechkin to unleash an expletive-laden, screaming soliloquy which had his teammates laughing. His celebration after he finally scored was even louder.

Rabid Ram Skates


Update:
Could Gus Portokalos be right after all?

Spanish to Greek translation

πρόβατα
próvata

No, Spanish Wikipedia says the word is of Latin origin:

es.wiktionary.org:

oveja
Pronunciación: [ o.ˈβe.xa ] (AFI)
Etimología: Del latín ovicŭla, diminutivo de ovis, "oveja"

Mamífero rumiante ungulado (Ovis aries), generalmente criado por su carne, leche y lana. El macho de la oveja es el carnero.

Spanish to English translation:

Listen to this translation

sheep
Pronunciation: [o.βe.xa] (AEF)
Etymology: From Latin ovicŭla, diminutive of ovis "sheep"


Hoofed ruminant mammal (Ovis Aries), usually raised for meat, milk and wool. The male sheep is a ram.

A new nickname for Ovi: Ovicula :-)

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