Mike Ilitch/Ilievski

[Mactruth]

I wanted to know what has Mike Ilitch, one of the most successful Macedonians in North America, done for Macedonians in the Republic and for Macedonia in general?

I never hear of him helping create business and growth in Macedonia or donating needed materials to Macedonia. I also wonder why he changed his last name from "ski" (Macedonian) to "ch" (Serb). He also had his photo on the MPO website, does he have pro-Bulgarian tendencies?

[osiris]

What makes you think his real name would br ilievski
Illich was the name given to his family by the Serbs during royalist Yugoslavia and was most likely based on a grandfathers name Ilo
Most modern Macedonian names are relatively new and rarely based on the original family names
Also ski is not the only Macedonian ending it maybe the most common today but it wasn't always the case

[Mygdon]

Most modern Macedonian names are relatively new and rarely based on the original family names Also ski is not the only Macedonian ending it maybe the most common today but it wasn't always the case

that is something that bugs me a lot.

[Niko777]

Also ski is not the only Macedonian ending it maybe the most common today but it wasn't always the case

I agree -ski was very rare in the old days but it became the standard after WWII. Like the Greeks, Serbs also changed Macedonian names. Anyway I believe Mike Ilitch was born in the USA so he probably forgot his ties with Macedonia or doesn't care.

[Niko777]

Like I mentioned in another thread, there are tens of thousands of Macedonian immigrants who were born in Macedonia and have become successful entrepreneurs in diaspora countries, and yet they are not doing anything to help Macedonia economically or create business. So why should Mike Ilitch, an American born entrepreneur, feel obligated to create business in Macedonia?

[Soldier of Macedon]

that is something that bugs me a lot.

Why and how does it bug you?

[Prolet]

There are Macedonians in Albania who have Albanian names yet they are Macedonians, like one of the Mayor Candidates in the Golo Brdo region Edmond Osmani.

Artemi, Im not sure what you mean either.

[osiris]

I asked around and it seems the family name was shuntov. But like everyone else their official name thanks to Serbian kingdom was derived from a male ancestor in this case mikes grandfather Ilo. His father emigrated to the USA as Sotir Ilich.

[Ljubanec]

In many interviews I have read, Mike Illitch has claimed he was nothing but Macedonian. I don't know if he has given to any causes or has invested in businesses in Macedonia. As for his name, some of you on this forum have names given to you from the proud Hellenic Republic. That fact does not make you any less Macedonian, so I don't understand why it should be an issue.

I also don't blame him for not contributing to Macedonian causes. Business in Macedonia is corrupt. Macedonian organizations and politicians in Macedonia are corrupt.

Until that traitor Gruevski gets out of office we should (all TRUE PATRIOTIC MACEDONIANS) boycott Macedonia.

[Lügendetektor]

What makes you think his real name would br ilievski
Illich was the name given to his family by the Serbs during royalist Yugoslavia and was most likely based on a grandfathers name Ilo
Most modern Macedonian names are relatively new and rarely based on the original family names
Also ski is not the only Macedonian ending it maybe the most common today but it wasn't always the case

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_Ilitch

Michael "Mike" Ilitch Sr. (born Michael Ilievski, July 20, 1929)[2][3][4

2^ Drew Sharp Thrilled by Wings, Mike Ilitch hopes to help pennant push next Detroit Free press, 2009
3^ Biographical sketch of Mike Ilitch Associated Press Archive, December 18, 2005
4^ Mike Ilitch U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame

[osiris]

Wikipedia is very unreliable and can be manipulated by well meaning but deluded people. In his ancestral village there are no ilievskis his family were shuntov.

[Risto the Great]

When I saw some tattoo of a Macedonian with nothing more than "SKI" on it. It occurred to me how divisive and unreliable that suffix is. It has always existed amongst Macedonians. It existed on my Maternal side (not from modern day Republic btw) but there are so many more true Macedonian names that exist without it. If one has to have "ski" on the end of one's name to qualify for supreme Macedonianness, then it would be a very sad day.

[julie]

My maternal side of the family from the Aegean did not have ski as a suffix.
My paternal side in the family from RoM had the ski suffix placed on their names in Tito's era. The beginning of the name came from my great grandfather's christian name, and the ski suffix was placed as an identifier according to dad , meaning "son of" much like the Scottish prefix "MaC"

My maternal side their names were forceably changed by the fascist Greek regime in their efforts to exterminate the existence of our people

It does not matter what someone's surname is and what suffix they have in their name, they are all Macedonian

[Soldier of Macedon]

I don't believe the suffix is divisive at all, except in those cases where certain Macedonians wish for it to be divisive. One doesn't have to have the suffix to prove he is Macedonian, but at least there is some historical validity to it where it concerns Macedonian surnames, unlike those foreign suffixes forced on to our people in Greece.

I also don't buy into the stories that Macedonians in the republic were 'forced' to adopt the suffix, when half of Macedonia still uses a historical patronym with the ov/ev suffixes. Macedonians (mostly in the west of the republic) either willingly adopted it to avoid similarities with other Slavic-speaking peoples in the Balkans, or were given that name by default by the authorities. However, I have never heard of a case where a Macedonian was forced to retain the 'ski' suffix, or denied the right to change it to a patronym-type surname.

[Risto the Great]

I know ethnic Albanians who were given "ski" endings so I am pretty sure there was an agenda in Macedonia at one point in time.

I think it is divisive if people somehow equate it with being more Macedonian. Which the bozo with the "ski" tattoo clearly had in mind. Having a "ski" suffix seems to provide a level of comfort to some of the less intellectual Macedonians from the republic.