Brace
Brace is most often an English surname from a place-name, especially Brace in Shropshire, though some lines may come from a shortened or altered form of a similar surname.
The #6,823 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 62,461 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Most evidence points to an English locational surname, referring to someone from Brace, a parish in Shropshire. Older surname writers also thought some families may represent a shortened or altered form of Braose/Braose-like names, which ultimately go back through Norman French and Latin forms. Because the surname is short and the historical spellings vary, more than one origin may have fed into the modern form Brace.
History
Lower explicitly treats Brace as a place-based surname and notes Brace in Shropshire. Bardsley also links Brace to local origins and suggests a possible connection with Braose. The name has remained uncommon but steady in Britain and later in the United States, where it is now mostly found as a relatively rare surname.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
One 19th-century surname writer noted that Brace can be confusing because it may be either a true place-name surname or a reduced form of another Norman family name.
From the historical record
“■would pay them best. BRACE. A parish in co. Salop. BRACEBRIDGE. A parish near Lin- coln, possessed by the family in XIII. and XIV. cent. BRACEY. Perhaps from Breci, or from Brecei in Normandj'. BRACKENBURY. Apparently from Brackenborough, co. Lincoln, in which shire the family are still seated. They”
— Patronymica Britannica: a dictionary of the family names of the United Kingdom