Brand
A surname from an old Germanic personal name meaning “sword” or “firebrand,” later used as a family name in England and Scandinavia.
The #1,879 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 16,135 Americans shares it.
Etymology
The surname Brand is usually traced to an old Germanic personal name based on the word for a sword or firebrand. In the historical sources, Old Norse hrandr/brandr and Old English brand are linked with the sense of “sword” or “blade,” and the name was used as a personal name before it became hereditary. In this tradition, Brand would originally mean something like “sword-bearer” or simply come from a warrior name built on the weapon word.
History
The name appears early in northern English records and in legendary genealogies, and it was especially common in Scandinavia. One 19th-century source notes that it was still used as a personal name in Iceland, which helped preserve the older form. In English usage it later became a hereditary surname, and related forms such as Brandt also occur.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
A medieval English source comments that it is unusual, but very old, for a normal word meaning “sword” to also function as a personal name.
From the historical record
“BRANCHFLOWER. See Blanchflower. BRAND. O. Norse hranclr, a sword, whence the 0. Eng. brand, with the same meaning. As a personal name it occurs in the genealogy of the Northumbrian kings from Woden. It was a very common old Scandinavian name, and it is still used in Iceland. Ferguson. Brand is found in Domesd. as a…”
— Patronymica Britannica: a dictionary of the family names of the United KingdomNotable people named Brand
- Russell Brand (b. 1975)
Sourced from Wikidata; linked to their Wikipedia page.