Burnaby won’t be adopting a new demonym any time soon – not officially anyways.
Burnaby city council declined Dageraad Brewing’s request to adopt “Burnabarian” as the city’s official demonym.
Dageraad owner Ben Coli pitched the idea last month. He said Burnabarian, which is the name of one of the first beers the brewery released when it opened in 2014, would be the perfect moniker for city residents.
But this week, city council sent him their official answer – no.
“While we appreciate your gracious offer to officially share your exceptional demonym, already embraced and beloved by thousands, in order to continue to honour all of our Burnabians, Burnaby-ites and Burnabites – as well as our Burnabarians – we must graciously decline this generous offer,” council wrote.
Coli said, while he liked the sentiment of the letter, he was disappointed council didn’t adopt the demonym.
“I think the people of Burnaby should know what to call themselves, instead of having to give a qualified response, like ‘Well, some people call us X, but …,’” he wrote in an email to the NOW.
“It's understandable that mayor and council didn't want to wade into this fray, especially when there are people who have been in Burnaby a lot longer than we have, who already have another (incorrect) opinion on what our demonym should be.”
But this is just a roadblock, according to Coli.
He plans to keep pushing to have the city declare its residents Burnabarians.
“Dageraad's going to have to play the long game and work on getting the Burnabarian name in circulation. Hopefully, in 20 years, there will be such a consensus that we won't need Council to declare a demonym, because it's obvious that it's Burnabarian,” he wrote.
