This surname is derived from the name of an ancestor. 'the son of Brand': said to be still in use in Iceland as a fontal name. In England it had gone out of use before the 13th century began.

William Brand, or Brant, Lincolnshire, 1273. Hundred Rolls.

Walter Brand, or Brant, Lincolnshire, ibid.

John Brand, Oxfordshire, 1273, Hundred Rolls.

Robert Brand, Oxfordshire, ibid.

Wymer Brant, Norfolk, ibid.

1796. Married — John Brand and Elizabeth Clubb: St. George, Hanover Square.

1802. — Thomas Brant and Abigail Bone: ibid.

A common Old English personal name, ON. Brandr, Old Swedish, Brander, Old Danish, Brand. It was a common name in the Danelaw. "The name Brand in England is usually taken to be of Norse origin, but it may be noted that as early as 1046 we find Bransbury, Hants, as Brandesburh, while Branston, Staffs, is Brantestun, in a charter (Birch, Cart. Saxonicum, 978) dated 956" (Mawer, p. 30). Giliane Brand held land in Irvine, 1323 (Irvine, I, p. 124). Thomas Brand was burgess of Edinburgh in 1512 (Laing, 287), and the name was common there in the seventeenth century (Edinb. Marr.). Adam Brand had a charter of lands of Steillend, 1631 (Pitfirrane, 526), William Brand is recorded in Urquhart, 1685 (RPC., 3. ser. X, p. 388), and James Brand was baker in the burgh of Canongate, Edinburgh, 1700 (Inquis., 8785). The Brands of Redhill or Castle Brand were an old family in Angus. As a forename we have Brande Fide, 1506 (Cawdor, p. 118).

Ole Norse, brandr, a sword, whence the Old English 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 previous tenant. Mr. Denham observes, that it is rather singular that the ordinary synonym for a sword should be brand. The name of the weapon taken from King Bucar by the Cid was Tizona, or the fire-brand. And he adds that "many swords were flamboyant; hence the word brand." Slogans of N. of English p. xvii.

In all the Teutonic dialects brand signifies to burn; also a sword, either from its brandishing, or from its glittering brightness. Brant, a hill; steep, high; Welsh, Bryn.

The Rev. Thomas Brand, rector of Leaden Roding, who died in 1654, was the ancestor of Timothy Brand, Esq., of the Hide, Ingatestone, who was high sheriff of the county in 1721 (M. and W.). A gentle family of this name, of Polstead Hall, Suffolk, in the 17th and 18th centuries, also owned in Essex the estates of Netherhall in West Bergholt and Mevaromes in Frating (M.). The name was represented in Lincolnshire and Oxfordshire in the 13th century (H. R.). There is a Lincolnshire parish thus called. The surname also now occurs in Herts.