Urian is a Celtic noble male given name (also Urien, Uryen, Uren, presumably derived from British Urbgen). It is recorded in 1273 in the Hundred Rolls of Huntingdonshire in a reference to a "John, son of Urian". In the twelfth century Geoffrey of Monmouth used the latinized form Urbianus for the semi-legendary British king Urien.
In the modern period, it also occurs as a surname, as Urian.
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' Urians Reise um die Welt (set by Beethoven as Opus 52, No. 1, 1805, and later by Carl Loewe as Opus 84, 1843), in the Walpurgisnacht scene of Goethe's Faust, eine Tragödie (1808), where it refers to the devil, and E.T.A. Hoffmann's The Life and Opinions of the Tomcat Murr (1819 -1821).