“Briand” is a very old "nom de famille"(family name) of Breton origin.  Bretons are a people of Celtic origin who populated the Breton peninsula around five centuries before the Christian Age.  Around the XII Century, European families started to identify themselves with proper names, by adopting a first individual name and another second name, shared with all the family members, looking forward of being able to claim for properties or inheritances.

At the Middle Age, instead of the use of family surnames like today, people were identified by their father's or mother's name, indicating who was son -or daughter- of who; in this sense, for instance, Peter Johnson was Peter, the John's son, but this John, maybe had a father called  John Samuelson, which means Samuel's son, etc.... fathers didn't have the same last name than their children. Later, those names started to become heritage, and on 12th Century the first notary acts appear where the father, son and grandson are sharing the same family surname.

Briand was at the beginning only a first name and later was therefore transformed in a family name . The Breton root “Bri” means “dignity” or “social rise”. In consequence, the first people who adopted that name were those who were distinguished by their quality of dignitaries.