Urian is a Celtic noble male given name (also Urien, Uryen, Uren, presumably derived from

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. * British national identity, the characteristics of British people and culture ...

''Urbgen''). It is recorded in 1273 in the

Hundred Rolls {{Short description, 13th-century census of England and Wales The Hundred Rolls are a census of England and parts of what is now Wales taken in the late thirteenth century. Often considered an attempt to produce a second Domesday Book, they are na ...

of Huntingdonshire in a reference to a "John, son of Urian". In the 12th century,

Geoffrey of Monmouth Geoffrey of Monmouth (; ; ) was a Catholic cleric from Monmouth, Wales, and one of the major figures in the development of British historiography and the popularity of tales of King Arthur. He is best known for his chronicle '' The History of ...

used the Latinized form ''Urbianus'' for the semi-legendary British king

Urien Urien ap Cynfarch Oer () or Urien Rheged (, Old Welsh: or , ) was a powerful sixth-century Brittonic-speaking figure who was possibly the ruler of the territory or kingdom known as Rheged. He is one of the best-known and best documented o ...

. In the modern period, Urian also occurs as a surname.

People

Notable people with the given name include: * Urian Brereton (died 1577), groom to Henry VIII *

Urian Oakes Urian Oakes (1631 – July 25, 1681) was an English-born American Congregational minister and educator who served as the fourth president of Harvard College. Early life The son of Edward and Jane Oakes, he was born in England in 1631 or 163 ...

(1631–1681), English-born American minister and Latinist

In German literature

In early modern Germany the expression ''Herr Urian'' or ''Meister Urian'' denoted a proverbial unwanted guest and figures in works of fiction such as

Matthias Claudius Matthias Claudius (15 August 1740 – 21 January 1815) was a German poet and journalist, otherwise known by the pen name of "Asmus". Life Claudius was born at Reinfeld, near Lübeck, and studied at Jena. He spent the greater part of his life i ...

' ''Urians Reise um die Welt'' (set by

Beethoven Ludwig van Beethoven (baptised 17 December 177026 March 1827) was a German composer and pianist. He is one of the most revered figures in the history of Western music; his works rank among the most performed of the classical music repertoire ...

as Opus 52, No. 1, 1805, and later by

Carl Loewe Johann Carl Gottfried Loewe (; 30 November 1796 – 20 April 1869), usually called Carl Loewe (sometimes seen as Karl Loewe), was a German composer, tenor singer and conductor. In his lifetime, his songs ("Balladen") were well enough known for ...

as Opus 84, 1843), in the ''Walpurgisnacht'' scene of Goethe's ''Faust, eine Tragödie'' (1808), where it refers to the

devil A devil is the mythical personification of evil as it is conceived in various cultures and religious traditions. It is seen as the objectification of a hostile and destructive force. Jeffrey Burton Russell states that the different conce ...

, and

E.T.A. Hoffmann Ernst Theodor Amadeus Hoffmann (born Ernst Theodor Wilhelm Hoffmann; 24 January 1776 – 25 June 1822) was a German Romantic author of fantasy and Gothic horror, a jurist, composer, music critic and artist.Penrith Goff, "E.T.A. Hoffmann" in ...

's '' The Life and Opinions of the Tomcat Murr'' (1819 -1821). The same meaning of the name can be found in

Hoffmann Hoffmann is a German language, German surname. People A *Adolph Hoffmann (1858–1930), German politician *Albert Hoffmann (horticulturist), Albert Hoffmann (1846–1924), German horticulturist *Alexander Hoffmann (politician), Alexander Hoffma ...

's short story ''Der Vampyr'' (''in'' ''The Serapion Brethren'', 1821; since the 1912 reprint, better known under the title ''Vampirismus'') in which a terrifying man wanted by the police corrupts the narrator's mother to the point where she becomes thirsty for corpses.''E. T. A. Hoffman: Transgressive Romanticism'', Christopher R. Clason (ed.), 2018

References

{{Reflist

People

In German literature

References

See also