why does the name confucius sound european when he was chinese?

Confucius is the Latinised version of his name: 孔夫子 Kǒng Fūzǐ

Confucius is the Latinized version of the name he was known by to Chinese scholars and historians - Kong Fuzi.

Jesuit missionaries in China in the 16th century Latinized this to Confucius,and this is thus the name he has been known by in the West ever since.

That's because it is a European name. That's not his real name. His real name is kong qiu. In Chinese culture, you refer to an expert as master. So you call a chef, an herbal expert (those guys you see in Chinese herb shops), or just about any stranger that's older than you as masters. So people called him master kong (kong zi in Chinese). Since he's so well respected, he's often called kong fuzi (the fu is similar to how your address royalty as your highness). Say kong fuzi fast enough and it sounds like Confucius.

It sounds Chinese to me.

How many Europeans are named that? It does sound "asian" and that wasn't even his real name.

I don' think it does actually, but it could be the word 'confusion' we use.

Confusion may even come from that

Chetak

like non english people who speak english, it's the colonizing newspeak language called English. That's the english interruption of his native name.