Brian
See also: brian
English
Proper noun
Brian
- A male given name from Irish.
- 1865, Charlotte Eliza L. Riddell, Maxwell Drewitt, London: Tinsley Brothers, pages 255–256:
- "What the deuce is their fancy for calling the young beggar Brian?" he inquired."Is it Brian Boroimhe they have gone back to, or is it some of her people, or what?"
"There was a good Drewitt once," answered Wilhelmina, "- - - and his name was Brian. - - - And Nannie told her, too, how a child always strains after the person it is called after, and how luck follows names, and worked her up to such a pit finally, that nothing would do her but the young gentleman must be called Brian and accordingly Brian he is - Brian Archibald. It is not an easy name to make fun out of; so all I can do is to call him Brin Baldy.
- 2008, Phill Young, FarArc, Author House, →ISBN, page 145:
- Why oh why had his parents even considered Brian? Brian is someone who works in a hardware shop or fixes the U bend. What chance did Sir Lovesdaslutalot have in life with a name like Brian? You can't even shorten Brian to Bri without it sounding like a kind of cheese!
- A surname.
Usage notes
After the Middle Ages, mostly used in Ireland; and again popular in all English-speaking countries in the 20th century.
Translations
male given name
|
Further reading
Brian Boru on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
Cebuano
Etymology 1
Unknown.
Danish
Faroese
Usage notes
- son of Brian: Briansson
- daughter of Brian: Briansdóttir
Declension
| Singular | |
| Indefinite | |
| Nominative | Brian |
| Accusative | Brian |
| Dative | Briani |
| Genitive | Brians |
French
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /bʁa.jan/
Audio (file)
Irish
Etymology
Probably from Breton Brien, Brian. The name Brian seems to have been unknown in Ireland before Brian Boru,[1] founder of the Ua Briain or Uí Bhriain dynasty, although the possibly related name Brión is found earlier, in Brión mac Echach Muigmedóin, the 4th/5th century ancestor of the Uí Briúin dynasty.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): [bʲɾʲiən̪ˠ]
Derived terms
- Ó Briain, Ní Bhriain (“O'Brien”)
Mutation
| Irish mutation | ||
|---|---|---|
| Radical | Lenition | Eclipsis |
| Brian | Bhrian | mBrian |
| Note: Some of these forms may be hypothetical. Not every possible mutated form of every word actually occurs. | ||
References
- Ó Dónaill, Niall (1977) “Brian”, in Foclóir Gaeilge–Béarla, Dublin: An Gúm, →ISBN
- Sean Duffy, Brian Boru and the Battle of Clontarf (2013): "when Brian was born—as we have seen, some time between 927 and 941—the only place in which the name Brian is found is not Ireland but Brittany. (And, incidentally, the occasional occurrence of the name in later mediaeval England derives not from our Brian or from Ireland but from landed connections between England and Brittany arising from the Norman conquest in 1066.) […] the name Brian occurs regularly among the families of the Breton nobility in this age but is hitherto unknown in Ireland […] the only one of Brian's contemporaries to bear it was Brian mac Máelruanaid, the king of Iar-Chonnachta who died in 1004, a younger kinsman of [Brian Boru's mother]."
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