Brian, i Brians #NiceName

Sobre el nom Brian, i tots els Brians d’aquest món, ja s’ha parlat molt, però avuí posaré el meu gra de sorra. Em vaig sentir-me orgullos del meu nom per primer cop a la primera classe de francès, potser a l’edat de 11 o 12 anys. La professora va fer lo tipic, passar una hora explicant-nos la traducció al francès dels nostre noms. Ja sabeu, Mary, pos, ets Marie etc. Però em va dir que els francesos no tenien de “Brian”s :) La part negatiu és que va triar qualsevol nom que començava en B, i em va anomenar Bernad :(

Sembla que Brian vol dir alt (en sentit metaforic) i noble – o sigui, com jo, i tots els Brians que conec. També sembla que és un nom d’origen irlandès, però, en fi, no es pot tenir tot en aquesta vida. De Brians n’hi ha tants de famosos que fins i tot algù ha escrit un llibre!

Jo no arribo a un llibre, però si que us vull oferir un petit example del tipus de persones que som. Brian Wilson, també conegut com a Deu – lider dels Beach Boys. Brian Epstein, manager dels Beatles, fins que va morir massa jove. Brian Clough, el millor entrenador de futbol de tota l’historia. Brian Blessed, un actor de meravella. Brian Johnson, cantant dels AC/DC. Brian The Snail, del programa infantil The Magic Roundabout (la versió superior que el BBC va fer d’una serie francès). Aquest programa molt probablement es va escriure sota l’influencia de diversos tipus de droga, especialment el LCD segons els entesos .... I Brian de la pel•lícula The Life of Brian (“la pel•lí més divertida de l’historia”). Bé, aqui teniu un episodi del Magic Roundabout (amb Brian al minut 0.58) i el tema primer de la pel•lícula.

Per cert, si aquests dies tardo molt en penjar apunts o contestar-vos, és degut a treballar massa – no us imagineu que he fotut lo camp a viure en una isla remota al mig del Pacific ... especialment si no trobo el passaport ...
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So, is Brian a cool name or isn’t it! The first time I really paid attention to the greatness of this name was in first year French lessons at secondary school (high school for the ultra-cool). As usual the French teacher managed to fill in an entire class telling us the French equivalents of our names. You know, Mary, you can be Marie; John, you’ll be Jean, and so on. But when she announced the French had no Brians, I was overjoyed – not being the keenest French-fan at that time. So she stuck Bernard on me – which kind of put the downers on. (but, apparently Brian is a French surname and means maggot, to them, so all’s well that ends well)
Anyway, to cut a long story short, there have been many great and heroic Brians throughout the ages. Not surprisingly as Internet informs us that Brian means high and noble. It is probably of Irish origin but we won’t hold that against it. Anyway, there are so many of us that someone has actually written a book on it. So let’s see a few of those Brians ...

Brian Wilson, leader and composer of the Beach Boys. Otherwise known as God. Brian Epstein, manager of the Beatles, until he died rather too early. Brian Clough, a great football manager from the time when football was still football. Brian Blessed, what an actor, what a voice! Brian Johnson, lead singer with AC/DC. Brian the Snail, from kids’ programme the Magic Roundabout (, probably the only BBC children’s series to introduce the effects of taking LCD to youngsters. Apparently this programme was a re-write of a French one, but much improved of course! And who can forget Brian, of the Life of Brian “the funniest film ever made”. Anyway, here’s an episode of The Magic Roundabout, and the theme song from the Life of Brian.

By the way, if it seems that I am not posting regularly on the blog over the next few weeks, or if I am slow at getting back to your comments and mails, it’s just down to an excessive work-load, of course. Don’t be thinking I’ve fled the country to live a life of Riley on a tropical island or anything like that .... as if that would ever cross my mind! Now, if I could only find that passport ...