Wiktionary

Brian

See also: brian

English

edit
English Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia

Alternative forms

edit

Etymology

edit

Borrowed from Irish Brian. Doublet of Brendan.

Pronunciation

edit

Proper noun

edit

Brian

  1. 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!
    • 2025 March 26, Jordan Valinsky, “Chili’s is opening a retro restaurant in Scranton that celebrates ‘The Office’”, in CNN Business‎[1], archived from the original on 16 April 2025:
      Chili’s has also enlisted several actors from “The Office” to star in the ads, including Melora Hardin (Jan Levinson), Andy Buckley (David Wallace), Brian Baumgartner (Kevin Malone) and Kate Flannery (Meredith Palmer).
  2. A surname.

Usage notes

edit
  • After the Middle Ages, mostly used in Ireland; and again popular in all English-speaking countries in the 20th century.
edit

Descendants

edit
  • → Cebuano: Brian
  • → Danish: Brian
  • → Faroese: Brian
  • → French: Brian

Translations

edit

Further reading

edit

Anagrams

edit

Cebuano

edit

Etymology

edit

Borrowed from English Brian, from Irish Brian.

Pronunciation

edit
  • IPA(key): /ˈbɾajan/ [ˈbɾ̪a.jɐn̪]
  • Hyphenation: Bri‧an

Proper noun

edit

Brian (Badlit spelling ᜊ᜔ᜇᜌᜈ᜔)

  1. a male given name from Irish

Danish

edit

Etymology

edit

Borrowed from English Brian in the 20th century, ultimately from Irish.

Proper noun

edit

Brian

  1. a male given name

References

edit
  • [2] Danskernes Navne, based on CPR data: 22 165 males with the given name Brian have been registered in Denmark between about 1890 (=the population alive in 1967) and January 2005, with the frequency peak in the 1970s. Accessed on 19 June 2011.

Faroese

edit

Etymology

edit

From English Brian (possibly via Danish Brian), ultimately from Irish Brian.

Proper noun

edit

Brian m

  1. a male given name

Usage notes

edit

Patronymics

  • Brian's son: Briansson
  • Brian's daughter: Briansdóttir

Declension

edit
singular
indefinite
nominative Brian
accusative Brian
dative Briani
genitive Brians

French

edit

Etymology

edit

Via English Brian from Irish Brian, ultimately from Breton Brien.

Pronunciation

edit

Proper noun

edit

Brian m

  1. a male given name

Irish

edit

Etymology

edit

From Middle Irish Brían, probably from Old Breton Brient (modern Breton Brien). 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

edit

Proper noun

edit

Brian m (genitive Briain)

  1. a male given name

Derived terms

edit

Descendants

edit

Mutation

edit
Mutated forms of Brian
radical lenition eclipsis
Brian Bhrian mBrian

Note: Certain mutated forms of some words can never occur in standard Modern Irish.
All possible mutated forms are displayed for convenience.

References

edit
  1. ^ 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]."

Further reading

edit

Spanish

edit

Alternative forms

edit

Etymology

edit

From English Brian, from Irish Brian.

Pronunciation

edit
  • IPA(key): /ˈbɾajan/ [ˈbɾa.jãn]
  • Rhymes: -ajan
  • Syllabification: Bri‧an

Proper noun

edit

Brian m

  1. a male given name from Irish
Retrieved from "https://en.wiktionary.org/w/index.php?title=Brian&oldid=92131679"