Why are Brummies not called Birmies?

The answer is simply that the City (or town as it then was) was much more often referred to as Brummagem.

In the Doomsday book it was recorded as Bermingeham but from then on it had some many corruptions which included (but not confined to) Bermincham, Burmicham, even Brymecham until by the 18th century it had settled down to Bromedgham or Brumegem.

Because of the propensity for chroniclers to transpose the 2nd and 3rd letters and omit the 'G' the original BIR became BRI and would have sounded sort of BRIMINHAM. Also with its association with the Black Country referred to as Bromwich (Bromich) with a ‘ham’ tucked on to be Bromicham or Bremicham.

By the early 19th Century it was largely referred to as Brummagem and a growing manufacturing town producing all kinds of metalwork. Sadly with some manufacturers guilty of using cheap metals the name Brummagem became synonymous with ‘cheap or shoddy quality’. However quality and workmanship improved so much and the town had its own Jewelry quarter that it applied to have its own Essay Office. This was hotly contested by the London Worshipful Guild of Goldsmiths but the town won through and it received royal assent.

Mathew Boulton one of the leading Manufacturers of the time and others supported the use of its original name (now spelled Birmingham) to disassociate it from the (then) tacky Brummagem image. In 1890 it was granted city status by Queen Victoria and became Birmingham by proclamation.

But the term Brummie was firmly adopted to describe anyone born within its city borders.

For wider reading check out wikibrum and Professor Carl Chin's own explanation of Brummagem by going to his web page (See Brum & Brummies)

 

Thanks Bob, I wondered why Birmingham was always shortened to Brum!

 

Were they good at literature too - with an Essay office? !!

 

Wordsmiths?

 

Sorry, a Brummagem moment and I like your comments.

There is only room for one Wordsmith in the family and that is my wife who proof reads much of my outgoing output, but not sadly the Forum. I type fast, indeed I am a trained typist (and stenographer for that matter and did court shorthand/typing in the RAF) but with age my accuracy levels and comprehension skills have diminished and 'typos' abound. My fingers produce what I visualise in my head and if the word is not picked up with a spell check -then bingo that's what you get! Of course I skim read both before previewing and during, and -on occasion - use the edit function after posting, but things still get away. More haste and less speed as my mother would say, but I doubt I will change.

My number one transition of words is 'there' and 'their' and have lost count of the number of times I have typed 'not' for 'now' -and vice versa, which totally changes the sense. Anyway thanks for pointing out my faux pas and I apologise for producing an Essay. (I resisted typing Assay).

 

Yes it has Alexander, but thanks anyway.

 

Presumably that's why you have 'mois' [=month] in your post about pricing, where 'moi' [=me] would be more conventional.

 

Touche. However in my defence can I just explain it was not a typing or mistranslation error as such. My wife and I often ape Dell Boy in OFAH who is always saying "What Mois!" (which is a 'soundex' of his pronunciation). So I automatically used the soundex rather than thinking about a literal translation.

However recalling my schoolboy French I accept it should have read as 'Moi?'. So merci beaucoup for that and hopefully I will remember it for the future.