This surname is derived from the name of an ancestor. Possibly a form of Brand, but this is a mere guess.

Alicia Brayn, Cambridgeshire, 1273. Hundred Rolls.

Helena Brayn, Huntingdonshire ibid.

John Brayn, Cambridgeshire, ibid.

1580. Thomas Braine and Hellen Maskall: Marriage Lic. (London).

1751. Married — Richard Brain and Catherine Martin: St. George's Chapel, Mayfair.

Thomas Brayne of Baldowy, witness in 1462 (Laing, 149), and David Brane, artium magister, 1477 (Cawdor, p. 63). David Brane, witness in Aberdeen, 1492 (REA., I, p. 331). John Brane signed the Band of Dumfries, 1570 (RPC., XIV, p. 66), Roger Brain in Allegawin, parish of Glenbervie, 1601, and four more of the name are recorded in Brechin Commissariot Record. Katherine Brayn appears in Harvestoun, parish of Kynneff, 1605 (St. Andrews), and John Brane in Gleddisholme, 1686 (RPC., 3. ser. XII, p. 406). In RPC., 3. ser. X the name is equated in the index with Brand. It may derive from Brain in Cote-d'Or, or from Braine in Ouse (Baring-Gould, p. 256).

(Celtic) for O'Brain, q.v. (English) the Anglo-Saxon pers. name Bregen [apparently from brego = prince, king]

From Braine in Anjou. Matthew de Brain occurs in Yorkshire in 1199 (Rotuli Curiae Regis): and Hugh Brayn and Alice his wife were of Ludlow in 1277. At about the same date we find John, Simon, and William Brayn living in Kent, and Roger Brayn in Huntingdon.—Rotuli Hundredorum. Henry Brein witnesses a charter of Walter de Clifford to Dore Abbey, Herefordshire. - Mon. Anglicanum. William Brayne of Aston occurs in an Inq. p.m. taken at Chester in 1516: and John Brayne in another taken in 1549.—Earwaker's East Cheshire. The family is likewise found in Worcestershire, where they bore Argent, three piles in point Vert.; on a canton Sable a lion’s head erased Or. In Gloucestershire the Braynes were seated at Little Deane as early as the fifteenth century. “In 13 Hen. IV. the chapel on the N. of the chancel of Little Deane Church was built and dedicated to St. Ethelbert by a member of the Brayne family; and at the altar in this chapel a perpetual ‘Brayne Chantry’ was endowed.”— Bristol and Gloucestershire Archæologia, vol. vi. Richard Braine was Sheriff of the county in 1556, and Forester of Dean. He survived his eldest son, and was succeeded in 1572 by a grandson, Thomas, who, though four times married, left only a new-born daughter that died twelve days after her father in 1604. Richard’s younger brother Henry had a son named Robert, who was in his turn Sheriff of Gloucester in 1568, and died two years later s.p., leaving as his co-heiresses two sisters; Anne, married to George Winter; and Emma, the wife of Sir Charles Somerset. But the family was not extinct; for both the uncles of the last Thomas Brayne left descendants. John Brayne was a captain in the Parliamentary army during the rebellion. They bore Azure on a fesse between three bugle horns stringed Argent a hemp-hackle Gules. Robson assigns a different coat to this name in Gloucestershire, viz. Argent on a pale Gules three leopard’s heads of the field.

Local. A small town and abbey on the river Vesle, in France. Brain, Gaelic, a chieftain; a naval commander; a captain of a ship.

A Norman name: From the Domesday Book, Brien. Brionne; a local name

Braine: may derive from Brain in Côte-d’Or, or from Braine in Oise.

A family of Brain held lands in the parish of Little Dean from the time of Elizabeth up to last century (A.), and the name still occurs there. The Brains also owned the manor of Stanton 300 years ago (R.). This is an ancient English name: it was represented in Hunts in the reign of Edward I. (H. R.).